PROMOTING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN THE CLASSROOM

1. PROMOTING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN THE CLASSROOM Preston A. Britner, Ph.D. Professor of Human Development & Family Studies ITL Lunch Series November 14, 2012

2. Plan for Our Discussion • What is student engagement in the classroom? • What does the research say about its importance? • Why is it difficult to engage students in our classes? • When have we been effective? • How do we know?

3. What is student engagement in the classroom? • “Student engagement is central to good teaching. In the engaged classroom, students actively construct understanding by collecting, manipulating, and analyzing information. Research supports the use of a variety of teaching strategies to increase student engagement.” - ETS

4. What does the research say about its importance? • Student engagement in the higher education classroom has been linked to a variety of positive outcomes, including improved critical thinking (Burbach, Matkin, & Fritz, 2004). • Critical thinking abilities and emotional intelligence are associated with grades. In regression analyses, they improved (by 50%) our capacity to account for variability in first semester college grades (Mossler, Lukhard, Gill, & Britner, 2002).

5. Why is it difficult to engage students in our classes? • Please write down your thoughts about the difficulties you have experienced in your classes at UConn. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. Why is it difficult to engage students in our classes? • Discuss obstacles. • Here’s where we confess to personal pedagogical failures.

7. Passive Learning & Teaching (O’Neil, ITL talk) • Students have been socialized as passive learners; faculty have been socialized as passive teachers. • Students become alienated and bored, then they disengage (e.g., cut class). • Faculty are disappointed with students, burned out/not interested in/not trained for teaching.

8. National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE, 2004) • N = 163,000 1st years and seniors at 472 colleges and universities • In 2004, they also surveyed faculty • Annual report, Student Engagement: Pathways to Collegiate Success, offers some insights into the relationships between effective educational practice and selected aspects of student success.

9. NSSE (2004) It’s the students… • Students spend only about half the time preparing for class as faculty expect. • 25% of seniors have NEVER discussed ideas from their classes or readings with a faculty member outside of class.

10. NSSE (2004) It’s the faculty… • Faculty (more than 90%) report that they provide prompt feedback on academic performance; only 58% of students agree. • Fewer than 30% of faculty report that coursework emphasizes memorization; about 66% of students, however, feel that it does.

11. Research from Secondary Education • Discussions of dropout prevention are being transformed into efforts to enhance student engagement by making the school attractive and meaningful to students (Srebnik & Elias, 1993). • UVa physics course, How Things Workhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjzZLw0nnyA&feature=share

12. Boredom vs. Engagement • Kanevsky and Keighly (2003) studied the boredom of gifted high school students who had become disengaged in their classrooms. They conclude that learning is the opposite of – and the antidote to – boredom. • Five (interdependent) characteristics distinguished boredom from engagement: • Control • Choice • Challenge • Complexity • Caring teachers

13. When have we been effective? • Please write down a “success” story about a class period, approach, or assignment that engaged your students at UConn. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

14. When have we been effective? • Here’s where we gloat about personal pedagogical successes

15. Culture and Learning:(Nov. 12, 2012) NPR story • http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/12/164793058/struggle-for-smarts-how-eastern-and-western-cultures-tackle-learning

16. More Research Findings:NSSE (2004) • When faculty EXPECT students to study more and arrange class to this end, students ARE more productive. • Students who engage in “deep” learning activities report greater educational gains and are more engaged and satisfied.

17. Pedagogical Techniques Associated with Greater Student Engagement • Instructors’ messages of willingness to communicate, inclusion, and appreciation (Mottet, Martin, & Myers, 2004). • When in small-group, cooperative learning settings • college students were more engaged, did more on-task thinking, perceived the task to be more important, and demonstrated more optimal levels of challenge and skill, relative to the time they spent in a large-group lecture (Peterson & Miller, 2004).

18. Shernoff, Csikszentmihalyi, Shneider, and Shernoff (2003) • Using a longitudinal sample of U.S. high school students, they found that students reported being engaged when: • The perceived challenge of the task and their own skills were high and in balance • Instruction was relevant • The learning environment was under control • Doing individual and group work (vs. lectures, videos, exams)

19. Math Instruction (Henningsen & Stein, 1997) Students were engaged when: • Tasks build on prior knowledge • Scaffolding (teacher and/or peer support) • Appropriate amount of task time • Modeling high-level performance • Sustained press for explanation and meaning

20. Promoting Intrinsic Motivation • Use extrinsic rewards sparingly • Promote mastery learning • Be clear about expectations, and give clear, timely feedback • Be supportive & inclusive • Build relationships

21. Promoting Student Engagement • Arouse students’ curiosity • Make course material relevant • Give students some control over their learning • Assign challenging, but achievable, tasks (Based on Brewster & Fager, 2000)

22. Active Learning • Classroom practice & student engagement • http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/showcase/hedges_tennis • UConn ITL Links • http://itl.uconn.edu/itl_web/resource_links.html • Learning styles FAQ • http://www.danielwillingham.com/learning-styles-faq.html • The myth of learning styles • http://www.changemag.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/September-October%202010/the-myth-of-learning-full.html • Cameron Faustman, UConn • http://itl.uconn.edu/mediadesign/web%20video/Faustman_dsl.mov

23. Use of Humor (or Humour, if you’re KB) • (From Keith Barker’s ITL Talk, Humor Can Help) • Students understand difficult concepts • Create interaction between teacher and students • Introduce awkward subjects • Break up a presentation / change pace • Reduce stress • Emphasize a point

24. Steven Wright, as applied to research methods… FORMULATING A RESEARCH QUESTION • To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research. • OK, so what's the speed of dark? SAMPLING • I woke up one morning and all of my stuff had been stolen...and replaced by exact duplicates. STATISTICS & PROBABILITY • Half the people you know are below average. • 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

25. VALIDITY • If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something. • I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met. WRITING UP YOUR RESULTS • If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. • A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking. ETHICS • A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory. • I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.

26. Funny you should mention that… Supporting Evidence • F. C. Williams (2001), Counselor Education Dissertation, Penn State • Undergraduates randomly assigned to lecture vs. lecture-with-humor (e.g., comics on overheads) conditions • Humor group retained more lecture content

27. Psychoeducation • a pedagogical approach that uses psychological and learning principles/processes to promote personal, emotional, and intellectual development in any educational setting. (O’Neil, Anderson, Britner, Brown, Holgerson, & Rohner, 2005)

28. Psychoeducation (cont’d) • data-based • facilitates the integration of cognitive and affective domains of learning • invites students to participate at their optimal comfort level • teacher is interactive, personal, and strategic in the presentation of the content • there may be resistance; defensiveness may occur • extra outside help (or even counseling) may be needed

29. Assignments & Feedback • Thought Pieces, Group Discussions, Oral Presentations • Applied Writing/Research • Grant proposal • Policy/law brief • Web pages

30. Thought Piece Assignment(Critical Thinking) • Large class (over 100 students) • Read book (325 pages) • Completed 3-page thought piece (10% of class grade) • Insight, thought, creativity, analysis -- not the regurgitation of facts/ideas • Quality of writing • In-Class Discussion (after written assignments were completed)

31. Ross, A. (1999). The Celebration Chronicles. • What is “community”? • Can you build it? • Citizen vs. customer • Positives and negatives of the new urbanist town of Celebration, FL

32. (P. 238) • “In the historical utopias, community was an intentional goal shared by individuals with allegiances to commonly held beliefs. In today’s planned development, community is mostly a marketing term… The more community-minded the town became, the more its property values would improve…”

33. Ross (Ch. 13) • “We just try to make a good picture. And then the professors come along and tell us what it means.” -- Walt Disney • (P. 303) “Celebration’s insider humor was often Trumanesque.” • (P. 308) “To my taste, the New Urbanist appetite for small-town civility often felt like a hunger for civic order at all costs.”

34. Discussion • Thinking of “home”, what was your neighborhood like? • Was there a sense of “community”? • If so, why? From what sources? • If not, why? What were the impediments? • What recommendations do you have for building “community”? • Repeat for “community” at UConn

35. Applied Writing Writing Amicus Curiae and Policy Briefs:A Pedagogical Approach to Teaching Family Law and Policy(Britner & Alpert, 2005) “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -- Aristotle

36. The Criteria (written and oral briefs) Quality of Content • logical argument is made, cohesively • good use of relevant research articles (esp. primary sources) • well integrated: demonstrates good understanding of the topic; research is critiqued and cited articles are integrated • statements supported with references to key research studies • references are strong, relevant Organization • Issue; Critical review; Conclusions; Recommendations

37. CHALLENGES • “One aspect of the process that I found to be difficult was viewing myself as someone who is knowledgeable enough about a topic to write briefs and recommendations.” [Graduate Student] • “Once I read the syllabus and saw that we had to do some sort of writing that I had no experience with, I got scared. Then as I read on and saw that we had an oral presentation, too, I thought I was doomed for failure.” [Undergraduate Student]

38. TRANSLATING RESEARCH (written brief) • “It was difficult to whittle my original literature review to the bare essentials and translate the findings from jargon to more accessible language. [Graduate Student] • “I thought it was extremely beneficial to have the research paper on the topic already completed. Writing the research paper early in the semester…provided me with ample time to really analyze the literature on the topic and get a good feel for what the literature reveals and how it should best be applied.” [Graduate Student]

39. TRANSLATING RESEARCH (oral brief) • “I added a story about a real girl that went through the struggles of medical treatment and informed consent. I wanted to get the audience to care about the girl and use it to see the idea of informed consent from my point of view.” [Undergraduate Student]

40. OUTCOMES • “Prior to this assignment, I always believed that older adults that have established themselves in a profession or are famous for whatever reason were the only people that could change laws or regulations or propose new ones. Now I see that if someone wants to implement change you have to have a good case, have research to support your case and be able to present it in a clear fashion.” [Undergraduate Student]

41. OUTCOMES (continued) • “I feel after completion of the course that I now possess the skills to thoroughly research, evaluate and extract the most important aspects of a topic. This, along with the knowledge and experience of formatting and presenting briefs leaves me feeling well equipped to write an effective brief on a topic of interest.” [Graduate Student] • “This class helped me to broaden my definition of a social scientist’s purpose…” [Graduate Student]

42. Conclusion • There’s nothing new about teaching brief-writing or oral testimony, but it is not a widespread practice in social science programs • Research on this pedagogical approach is limited, but (anecdotally) positive • Both tasks are viewed by students as valuable for engagement, critical thinking, problem solving, and the bridging of academic and applied domains

43. How Do We Know if We Have Been Effective? • Not, apparently, with “engagement bracelets” • http://www.danielwillingham.com/1/archives/06-2012/1.html • Assessment tools for observing student engagement are now being developed and validated in schools, from secondary to university to graduate programs (e.g., Hunt, Haidet, Coverdale, & Richard, 2003; O’Malley et al., 2003). • See how institutions use NSSE findings • http://nsse.iub.edu/_/?cid=269

44. Conclusion • Student engagement in the classroom is • Difficult • Attainable • Important • Faculty can promote student engagement

45. Suggestions • Build relationships in the classroom • Communicate your passion for learning & for the subject matter • Use of humor – if it suits you • Use active learning activities • Prepare extensively – then strive for flexibility amidst structure • Be clear with objectives, and design assignments and exams that reflect students’ knowledge and critical thinking