A Short Treatise
on Student Engagement
Or
A Modest
Proposal……
For those
of you who get the alternate title, there are days when students can engender
these kinds of sentiments. Seriously though, I would like to share with you
four things I learned to do in my classrooms that helped me improve student
engagement. In the process, I discovered that I was really working on the
precursors of engagement such as trust, risk-taking, and caring about them in
my own way. To be very honest, I was quite shocked when I first invited student
participation (given that I hadn’t experienced the opportunity too often as a
student myself) and it wasn’t forthcoming. So, I learned, it wasn’t just a matter of me getting out of
their way, per se, but of developing the context and desire on their part to do
so.
When I
think about student engagement, the first axiom that comes to mind is “Before
you delve, divulge.” It is important that we expose ourselves as caring
risk-takers before we ask them to do the same, and more importantly, to demand
that the risk taken in the classroom is respected by their peers. We can set
that standard emphatically ourselves through our actions instead of by
defensive reactions to inappropriate student reactions. When you combine the
multiple factors that limit engagement in our classes (i.e., low subject
skills, past humiliation or embarrassment, resentment at being at this level,
being too cool for school, unclear academic and career goals, etc.), it is a
wonder they open their mouths at all. Then when some do, I wish they hadn’t.
I start
encouraging engagement the first day of class, and I ratchet it up through the
term. Here are a few key activities that I do every term with every class I
teach (from the developmental to the graduate level):
1.
Syllabus Goals – When I
hand out my syllabi, I have them turn the paper over and write down three to
four goals they have for the class. In recent years, I have even incorporated
into the syllabus itself:
Goals:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Sometimes I have to prod them but they
usually come up with a few. I have them share them with the class. At this
point I begin to randomly call on them to share one if they don’t offer. When
we then get to the expectations and rules of the class, I have them connect
these regulations to their goals. Before I get to my list though, I ask a
question of them that often startles them. I ask them “What behaviors from me
will show you that I respect you as students?”
This takes a few minutes for them to understand and to respond, but they
do. I get things like “be patient with us”, “don’t laugh at us”, turn our
homework back to us quickly”, etc. After letting this take its course, I ask them
what the next question will be and they usually get it – “What behaviors will
you see from us that show we respect you as our teacher?” From there, my list
becomes largely redundant and a social contract has begun, far more tangible
and palatable than the standard
classroom syllabus review. It builds
by-in from the beginning and creates a friendly feel for the syllabus and the
class.
2.
Attendance Cards – I take
attendance every day in my classes, and I use a special tool to do so. I give
them each a 3 x 5 notecard. I then have them write the following on one side:
Name:
Address:
Phone Number:
Email:
Intended Major:
Hobbies and Interests:
I have find it useful to collect addresses
and phone numbers as they don’t always match what the college has on record. I
focus on the last two pieces of information as I try to get to know the
students. I tease them and try to integrate examples where I can that exploit
their information. Each day I go through these cards quickly and I keep track
of their attendance on the other side of the card. I simply place them in two
piles after calling roll; one stack for those attending and one for those
absent. They know they have to see me after class if they come in late to move
the card to the present pile. When they are absent, I write the date. When they
are tardy, I write the date with an L after it. I learn their names very
quickly this way (an important concept that many of you work hard at I have
noticed), and they like the attention.
3.
Letters – I have my
students write me a letter the second or third week of class. The object is for
them to let me know what they think I should understand about them as my
students. I have done this for thirty years now and have rarely received distressing
responses I then respond to the letters and continue the activity periodically
throughout the class. My greatest breakthroughs have come through this
exercise, and I will share one here from my personal blog:
Nearly fifteen years ago, I was asked to teach a
special study skills course to a special group of students. I was intrigued by
the challenge, and I wanted to test the efficacy of some new learning theories
I was developing. I learned that the class was in a cohort, a learning
community, and that I would be teaching them study skills applied to
psychology. They were seventeen, eighteen-year old black students who had low
entrance scores, and had not been very successful in high school. I was set for
the experience.
The first morning of the class, I was walking down
the hall still composing my initial remarks when I noticed they had put us in a
small, narrow classroom. I knew how crowded it would be before I opened the
door. There would be seventeen young students sitting around a rectangular set
of tables, with only a few feet from their backs to the four walls, I was not
pleased. I opened the door, walked in, and was startled with what I found - all
the students were there, crammed around the tables, none of them smiling, with
the lights off. It was an inauspicious start.
I did turn the light on, called roll, and started
to teach. Several of them, but not all, warmed up a bit, and the class went
smoothly. I was pleased that many of them seemed to wake up and respond to me,
but I did notice one young woman from the start, Keisha - she sat in the corner
with a large hat on, frowning throughout the lecture. I was a little irritated
to tell the truth, and I supposed I chalked it up to a bad attitude, one that
might take me a long time to crack, if I ever managed to. For the next three sessions,
she didn't move and only spoke if I asked her a direct question. She wasn't
hostile, but she wasn't very friendly either.
During the third week of class, I assigned a letter
as homework, as was my custom. I told them to tell me anything they would like
me to know, and that it would be confidential. I always enjoyed reading these
notes from my students, as I learned a great deal more about them. I would then
answer them, and we would exchange this informal information throughout the
term. Keisha's letter caught me off guard: It was long, written beautifully,
and full of her hopes and desires. Initially I thought I had gotten the name
wrong, surely that couldn't be from the morose, sour student in the big hat in
the corner. But it was.
Keisha wrote about being a writer, a computer
engineer, getting out of her neighborhood, living a new and exciting life. She
also mentioned many of the things we had learned in the first two weeks, and
she applied them very astutely to her psychology class. I wrote her back an
equally long letter, and I noticed she had perked up and was now sitting at the
table the next class period. Somewhere midway through the lecture, I called her
out, teasing her gently. She looked at me for a second then smiled, broadly and
beautifully, with a pencil thick gap between her front teeth. Later she would
tell me she didn't smile a lot, for obvious reasons (I didn't think they were
obvious), and that many people mistook her demeanor for apathy and disrespect.
I paid a lot more attention to Keisha from that
point on. She was by far the best student I had ever had in a study skills
course, and she enthusiastically applied everything I taught her. She had been
a C student in high school, and she was now grinding out As on all her other
assignments. She continued to write me, sometimes sharing her poetry, sometimes
telling me she was making an effort to get to know her other instructors and
that they were responding nicely. Keisha was coming out of her shell.
Keisha breezed through my class and her psychology
course, as well as all her others. By the end of the term, I convinced Keisha
to go to two state educational conferences to help me make presentations about
the experimental course and it theories. She was nervous at first, but then she
agreed, going on to steal the show at each event. The conference goers were
very impressed with her, and stayed afterwards to ask her questions. I was
very, very proud of her.
Keisha graduated in a little over four years with a
degree in Computer Engineering, graduating summa cum laude, and I was at her
graduation watching as she walked across the stage smiling joyfully. She went
on to do an internship and eventually to a great job. To this day, I still
remember her sitting back in that corner, perhaps daring me to come and help
pull her out. I take a small amount of credit for her success, but not too
much. I was in the right place at the right time, and stumbled on the right
student. Sometimes God lines things up nicely, people too.
4.
Questions – Somewhere before
mid-term, I like to stop class early on an appropriate day to do so, and to
revolutionize my students’ learning experience a bit. I hand out uniform strips
of paper to each of them and tell them they can write down any questions they
want to ask me at all, about anything they are curious about. At first, some
are stunned and some get a big smile on their face and begin scribbling. I tell
them not to worry if the question is appropriate or not, as I can choose not to
read it aloud if I don’t like it. To date, I have never received a cruel or
intentionally stupid question in the thousand or so inquiries students have
shared with me. On occasion, they ask more questions openly and I answer them
honestly. They are curious! Curious as I was I suppose of this person in front
of them. As a small footnote, I should add that I didn’t utilize these last two
activities with my more worldly and experienced graduate students until the day
I was describing them to a graduate education course as an example of reaching
younger students. To my great surprise an older student asked “Why don’t you do
these with us?” Several of her peers nodded and I have done so since.
These are not magic bullets, nor do they represent
some sort of panacea in this ongoing struggle to reach and hear from our
students. In their present form though, they suit my style and philosophy and
help me create a consistent environment for the dialogue and participation I
demand of my students. I have noticed that the number of inappropriate, cruel,
and sometimes vicious remarks made by my students have decreased when I got out
ahead of engagement and actually increased it, but with guidelines and tempered
expectations. If you like any of these ideas, feel free to use them. If you
have other ideas that work for you, share them with me and I will pass them on.
