Engagement - Definition Engagement Definition Oxford dictionary - PDF document

15/06/2012 Energy in action: Perspectives on student engagement June 6, 2012 Mary Ainley University of Melbourne Australia maryda@unimelb.edu.au Engagement - Definition Engagement Definition • Oxford dictionary (1999): to engage – betrothal, drawing battle line, employment … conveys meaning of being occupied with, committed to … requires that the object be specified. • From mechanics: gears interlocking for the purpose of moving the parts of a machine. maryda@unimelb.edu.au 1

15/06/2012 Engaging Education Engaging Education • Engaging as verb puts the focus on the commitment of the person. • Engaging as adjective puts the focus on the character of the educational experiences/activities or system – the task matters. • Engaging education implies an interactive unit – person and task. maryda@unimelb.edu.au Three Metaphors Three Metaphors Hook Switch Gears maryda@unimelb.edu.au 2

15/06/2012 Hook Hook The character of the activity is engaging; has properties that will attract attention. For example: • novel • ambiguous • puzzling Issue : maintaining the synchrony of person and educational activity. maryda@unimelb.edu.au School centre opens gateway to culture Benjamin Preiss Higher Education Reporter June 1, 2012 Tian Yu teaches Chinese Chi exercises in Keysborough Secondary College's new Confucius Centre. Photo: Penny Stephens maryda@unimelb.edu.au The Age 3

15/06/2012 Mr Yu, 27, believes the Exploratorium marks an innovative new chapter in teaching languages to high school students. The room, launched officially last week, is equipped with five touch screen panels loaded with information about Chinese language and culture. Mr Yu sets a task and students can use the panels to find the answers. ''They can incorporate that into whatever task I set them whether it's a role play or writing a letter,'' he said. '‘ I like this self-initiated approach because each student learns in their own way.'' Mr Yu, who moved to Melbourne as a child from the countryside near Shanghai, said the Chinese decorations and digital technology helped pique the students' curiosity. ''It's like a hook to get the kids interested and we go from there.'' maryda@unimelb.edu.au Switch Switch The person is turned on as soon as they encounter the activity. They are primed and ready to be engaged. They bring to their learning • attitudes • orientations • predispositions • existing knowledge Issue : How do students acquire these characteristics? maryda@unimelb.edu.au 4

15/06/2012 Some examples of school projects that generated interested learners … Best holiday snap? Student sends family into space Bridie Smith May 15, 2012 Michael Gruber, 15, sent a family photo into space as part of a school project. maryda@unimelb.edu.au Photo: Angela Wylie The Age Pupils passionate about big picture Pupils passionate about big picture Jewel Topsfield July 2, 2011 Jewel Topsfield July 2, 2011 Yea High School students Matt Dickson and Sophie Watts. Yea High School students Matt Dickson and Sophie Watts. Photo: Rebecca Hallas (Digitally altered image) Photo: Rebecca Hallas (Digitally altered image) The Age The Age 5

15/06/2012 MATT Dickson is obsessed with aviation. His animated chatter darts from the history of flight to gravity and the four forces that keep planes in the air. '‘ It's been a passion since I was four or five, it's been ages,'' Matt says. ''My dad and I went to Avalon airshow and it sparked something inside. I want to do everything on aviation.'' Students in the Big Picture program at Yea High, for example, must still attend compulsory maths, English and sport lessons. Even so, the difference Between year 8 at Yea High, and the year 9 Big Picture stream is like, well, chalk and cheese. ''I love it,'' Matt says. ''It's more freedom … I've become more focused on actually learning what I want. I've also found out I'm interested in other things. I never thought I'd like evolution; I thought evolution was apes and that's it, but I wanted to do a passion project on prehistoric life. Our adviser said it would be good to get an idea of evolution first and when I dug deeper it became a whole passion project.'' maryda@unimelb.edu.au Gear metaphor Gear metaphor – the process the process • Top gear – interlocked and moving forward, directed, focused, getting somewhere efficiently. • Low gear – interlocked but laboured, moving forward but not going anywhere fast. • Reverse gear – going in the opposite direction; disaffected, dropping out … Issue : to understand the process maryda@unimelb.edu.au 6

15/06/2012 Three Forms of Engagement Three Forms of Engagement (Fredericks et al. 2004) (Fredericks et al. 2004) • Behavioural • Cognitive • Emotional (see also Schooling Issues Digest 2005/2: Frydenberg, Ainley and Russell , Student Motivation and Engagement. ) maryda@unimelb.edu.au Behavioural Behavioural Engagement Engagement Indicators:  Rule following, adhering to norms, identification with expected patterns of behaviour  Involvement in learning tasks, effort, persistence, attention, class participation  Participation in school-related activities including extra-curricular activities maryda@unimelb.edu.au 7

15/06/2012 Behavioural Behavioural Engagement Engagement For example:  PISA 2000 – International Study of reading achievement  Participation measured using attendance records (attendance and absenteeism in the two weeks prior to the survey)  Self- report measure of ‘sense of belonging’  LSAY (Fullarton, 2002)  Participation measured in terms of involvement in extra- curricular activities.  Interpreted as an index of identification with schooling maryda@unimelb.edu.au Cognitive Engagement Cognitive Engagement Indicators:  Investment in learning, learning goals  Self-regulation, being strategic, making decisions  Applying the skills, strategies and capacities that have been acquired maryda@unimelb.edu.au 8

15/06/2012 Cognitive Engagement Cognitive Engagement For example:  Achievement goal measures of students’ purpose in learning; different forms of cognitive engagement  mastery; performance-approach; performance-avoidance; work avoidance  Self-regulation strategies  balance of deep, elaboration, or transformational strategies relative to surface or reproductive strategies maryda@unimelb.edu.au Emotional Engagement Emotional Engagement Indicators:  Affective reactions in the classroom – interest, boredom, happiness, anxiety  Affective reactions to the school  Affective reactions to teachers  Identification with the school – sense of belonging maryda@unimelb.edu.au 9

15/06/2012 Contrasting Extremes Contrasting Extremes  Flow : becoming so involved in the task that  It seems to be effortless  May lose all sense of time  The activity is all important  Learned helplessness:  Attribution of failures to fixed, personal inadequacies, especially low ability  Effort is seen as useless  Students simply give up maryda@unimelb.edu.au Interest and Challenge: Interest and Challenge: the Experience the Experience  Questionnaires have been the most widely used form of measurement for motivation  Questions asking students about their general or typical way of responding to achievement domains e.g., mathematics, reading  Motivation is a dynamic process – the general needs to be supplemented with information about specific states that occur while students interact with specific tasks. maryda@unimelb.edu.au 10

15/06/2012 Measuring the dynamics of Measuring the dynamics of motivation motivation The following slides present some findings from studies we have conducted where the primary aim has been to identify significant motivational processes that distinguish students who engage with the task and students who do not engage with the task. We have used a interactive research tool – software called Between the Lines (BTL). Two forms have been used: one involves presenting texts each divided into three sections. Students decide the order and how much of each text they will read. The second form which was used for the findings reported here, involves open-ended problem tasks and students have access to information resources to help them arrive at an answer. Students record notes in an electronic notepad and when they come to construct their answer they have to depend on the notes they have taken. Performance has generally been assessed as the quality of the argument to support the answer. maryda@unimelb.edu.au  Presenting students with a challenging tasks appropriate to their educational level.  Tasks structured to require choices and decisions that are all monitored.  Probes inserted into the tasks requiring immediate ratings of feelings and thoughts. maryda@unimelb.edu.au 11

15/06/2012 maryda@unimelb.edu.au Design of Problem Solving Software Interest and other emotions Task Explained Self – Efficacy, Task difficulty Planning Pre-task Interest and other emotions Resource use: time, order of choice On-Task Note-taking Quality of argument Answer Submitted Interest and other emotions Post-task Self – Efficacy, Task difficulty 12