Student engagement is a hot topic with many teachers despairing that students display an alarming degree of disinterest and disengagement in school. More than 130 studies in this meta-analysis revealed that engagement and academic achievement are very related. The Student, published in the Journal of Educational Psychology https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fedu0000833 was published in 2024.
Key findings included that engagement is a powerful variable related to participation, effort, and achievement. The authors noted that the term “engagement” is often poorly defined and too vague to help teachers draw practical conclusions from the research. Nevertheless, we certainly know what disengagement looks like – teachers who elevate coverage of material over frequent checks for understanding while grouping two or three students processing critical information. Nevertheless, many teachers get the message that delivery is equivalent to learning, and that failure to stick to the script and cover the curriculum can lead to administrators blaming teachers for failing to cover all the standards. In a recent article in Kappan, my friends and occasional co-authors, Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey, insisted that teachers must cover every standard and argued against prioritized standards – the term I coined more than 30 years ago was Power Standards™. The fatal flaw in every state standard is the assumption that students need only one year of learning and thus, teachers should deliver one year of standards. That assumption was invalid before the learning losses associated with COVID and is preposterous now. The situation will worsen if we encourage teachers to engage in mind-numbing lectures and demonstrate ions at the expense of student engagement. Great teachers use three-minute timers – three minutes to explain a single concept, three minutes to present a challenge that students work on either alone or with a partner, and then three minutes to have students explain their answers. This can transform a deadly dull class period into a vibrant and engaging learning experience.
I encourage you to listen to the Fearless Schools Podcast. Tomorrow, a new episode drops. It is “From Pandemic Student to Post Pandemic Teacher” and features Em Beeler and Kylie Thomas. Follow the Fearless Schools Podcast wherever you listen.