What Real Student Engagement Looks Like

Next year, we may be focusing school-wide attention on student engagement.  Here’s an article recap that focuses on student engagement from a student’s perspective.

What Real Student Engagement Looks Like

        In this Kappan article, Elliott Washor (Big Picture Company) and consultant Charles Mojkowski suggest ten dimensions of student engagement, framed as questions students might ask:

        • Relationships – Do my teachers know me, my interests, and my talents? Do my teachers help me form relationships with adults and peers who might serve as models, mentors, and coaches on my career interests? Do my teachers help me build relationships inside and outside the school?

        • Relevance – Do I find what the school is teaching relevant to my interests, including my career interests? Do my teachers help me understand how my learning and work contribute to my community and the world?

        • Choice – Do I have real choices about what, when, and how I will learn and demonstrate my competence? Do my teachers help me make good choices about my learning and work?

        • Challenge – Do I feel appropriately challenged in my learning and work? Am I addressing standards of excellence that are real-world, high, and meaningful?

        • Authenticity – Is the learning and work I do regarded as significant outside school by my communities of practice, experts, family members, and employers? Does the community recognize the value of my work?

        • Application – Do I have opportunities to apply what I am learning in real-world settings? Do I have opportunities to help solve problems in my community and the world?

        • Play – Do I have opportunities to explore – to make mistakes and to learn from them – without being branded a failure? Do my teachers coach me in tinkering, experimenting, and speculating?

        • Practice – Do I have opportunities to engage in deep and sustained practice of the skills I need to learn? Do my teachers guide me in practicing correctly?

        • Time – Do I have sufficient time to learn at my own pace? Am I allocating sufficient

time for my learning – to go deep as well as broad?

        • Timing – Can I pursue my learning outside the standard sequence? Do my teachers help me determine the right time for pursuing a project or taking a course?

“Student Disengagement: It’s Deeper Than You Think” by Elliott Washor and Charles Mojkowski in Phi Delta Kappan, May 2014 (Vol. 95, #8, p. 8-10), www.kappanmagazine.org

Stephen Anderson