Engaged learning
From WikEd
[edit] Descriptions, definitions, synonyms, organizer terms, types of
Engaged learners are essentially responsible for their own learning. Many times students are self-regulated, determining their own goals and evaluating their own acheivement. Students are usually energized by their learning which allows them to have a lifelong passion to solving and understanding problems. Engaged learning also encompasses working together with other students and or other teachers (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 2005).
Engaged learning is also a comprehensive student-centered approach to creating a curriculum that uses a variety of multimedia experiences, especially the internet. Teachers create their own webpages that have a variety of specific curricular goals in mind. Students are required to use those particular sites for information gathering and are assessed through a comprehensive grading rubric.
Engaged learning is broken down into eight indicators:
- Vision for Learning
- Tasks for Engaged Learning
- Assessment of Engaged Learning
- Instructional Models and Strategies
- Learning Context
- Grouping
- Teacher Roles
- Student Roles
A way to view engaged learning is that the students take responsibilty for their own learning through challenging tasks that are often assessed by perfomance based assessments. Students explore topics and then find creative ways to present the material learned to the class.
[edit] Application in classrooms and similar settings
More and more school districts are going towards engaged learning practices. The teachers role in implementing engaged learning in their classroom is to provide a rich environment with activities by letting students work together, problem solve, and allwoing students to share their knowledge and responsibility of a specific task.
Students are very eager to work with a partner to come up with an interesting topic or idea. Engaged learning can be very important for a student with special needs.
With engaged learning, the students are taking an active role in the learning process. They are not just sitting there taking in the information as the teacher lectures; they are taking an active role in the learning process by following the teacher's model of the concept to be learned. One effective way of incorporating engaged learning in the classroom is to follow a model of: "I do it," "We do it," "You do it." The teacher models the concept to be learned as she "thinks aloud" in front of the students. Then she has the students follow her model as she and the students perform the newly learned task. Finally, now that the students have acquired the necessary information, they are ready to perform the task on their own.
In a language arts class, for example, suppose the teacher wanted to teach her students about particular reading strategies. She would pass out highlighters or sticky note paper and the reading material. The class would read the material together, but only after they have made a prediction about the selection to be read, and as the selection was being read, the teacher would model the strategy she wants her students to develop. The teacher would stop after a certain part in the text and say out loud, "Hmmm...now I know I need to learn the definition of this word, so since I just came across this word, I'm going to mark it in my reading." She would either highlight it or mark the spot with a sticky note with the particular word on it. She would show this model to the students and have them do the same thing. The class would continue to read the selection out loud and the teacher would continue to stop here and there to summarize, clarify, or answer a particular question. If she thought it would be a good spot in the reading to check for understanding and summarize, she would say out loud, "Okay, so what I just read was that..." and she would give a brief summary. She would write this summary either in the margin or on a sticky note and place it on or next to the particular paragraph or section. She would then show this to the students and have them do the same. This process continues until the teacher feels the students have caught on. She then simply guides the students in the following way: Knowing that the students have just read a bit of information that will be important in answering one of the questions at the end of the selection she asks them to think about if there is anything they came across that might be important. The students do realize this because they have read the questions at the end of the reading before they actually began to read and they know the information they are supposed to be looking for. The students then utilize the strategy on their own by either highlighting, marking the spot with a sticky note, and/or writing a brief margin note.
When students play an active role in the learning process, they are genuinely involved in engaged learning.
[edit] Application within a music classroom
In the US music curriculum, the majority of attention is given to those actvities that are leading up to the performance. There is a paradigm shift in American schools helping students in music to be more comprehensive in their musicianship. In most other music curriculums around the world the focus is creating a complete musician and not just a performer. Studies show that, by supplementing the curriculum with technology and composition exercises, students continue with music longer in thier lives outside of school. Engaged learning is one method to help integrate technology into the music curriculum while still maintaining the high expectations of the performance aspect of the music class.
Lesson plans can be accompanied with the many computer assisted instruction (CAI) software programs that are on the market and the prices of the software remain affordable for schools and can be purchased in discounted groups packs for use in their computer labs. Many schools have entire music computer stations that have been donated through local businesses with the assistence of grant money.
At the bottom of this section is a link to a site that includes an Engaged Learning activity for third or fourth graders.
Music Lesson plan for Engaged Learning
[edit] Evidence of effectiveness
The current practices of teachers giving the information and the students who are the passive recipients are outdated for our real world experiences.
Traditionally, the way we measure for effectiness is by giving the students a standardized test. What happens to the special education students, or the students with limited english or how about the gifted students? A standardized test seems like a mold that everyone is supposed to fit in. Engaged learning breaks that mold and allows for students to explore in ways they could never have done before.
It seems that the bulk of the learning described here involves some type of use of technology. I support this approach. However, apprropriate types of programs have to be made available for students to use and support or tutoring needs to be provided both for students as well as teachers. Without this type of help, engaged learning could lose some of its effectiveness. B. orenic==Critics and their rationale== Some teachers believe that by having their students engaged takes away from the structure of the class. Yes, there has to be structure in order for students to learn. Students also need to be motivated otherwise they will become bored. This essentially falls upon the teacher to be very structured in their daily approach.
Time is of the virtue. Don't we hear this often, that we just simply do not have enough time to go through everything. Yes, there might be more planning time, but engaged learning (once the bugs are worked out) is very time efficient. Stduents can take ownership and pride in their education.
A teacher cannot use these resources if funding is not made available to them. There is a section for teachers in one of the links at the bottom of the page that describes how to recieve funding for an Engaged Learning project. For example, many of the technology projects have specific technology grants that are easy to attain if you just do the work to apply for them.
"There is strong evidence that traditional models of learning, traditional definitions of technology effectiveness, and traditional models of the cost effectiveness of technology don't work" (NCREL, 2005).
[edit] Alternative explanations due to Diversity considerations
When looking at engaged learning a person has to realize that sometimes student's might be in a group to work on an assignment. That group could include different sexes, cultures, abilities, ages, socioecomonic backgrounds and so on. Theses different groups offer a significant wealth of knowledge to the task. Flexible grouping allows for the teacher to change small groups according to the different tasks and incorporates heterogenous groups which allows for an increase in learning opportunties. ([1] NCREL, 2005)
[edit] Signed ‿life experiences‿, testimonies and stories
At the beginning of each school year we spend a few days reviewing ways to "engage" our students. The use of technology has really opened the doors for teachers to engage their students each day.
A project that I do with my 6th graders at the end of the human body sytem unit is to have my students form a group and design a human body system. There are only a few things that I require the rest is up to the kids. I require that all the parts of that body system are to be labeled and that the function of the body system is to be placed on the piece of paper. Other than thta, students can design it any way they can. I have had people use fabric for body parts, markers, colored pencils, paints, and even tattoos. Students are often concerned with how their body looks, too small or too large porportionately. I tell them focus on the reuirements and have fun with the assignment. They then just let their imagination go. -Ben Leven
"Students have a great time making an I-movie on a topic that they choose. This gets them involved with movie direction, research, and acting." -Ken M.
Part of the third grade curriculum is to study three Native American tribes. I decided to teach the chapters a little differently this year. I had students draw a paper to decide which group they would be working in. It was their job to become an expert on their tribe. They then spent several weeks constructing a model of the home that their tribe would have lived in (i.e. tipis, longhouses, or hogans). The students were then responsible for teaching the rest of the class about their tribe. The students were actively engaged in this project, and definitely learned more than had I taught them from the textbook myself. -NMF
I think engaged learners probably are more motivated and actually learn more. A teacher who can engage her students in learning will find her students actually more productive and enjoying learning. I think some teachers just give the information in a traditional manner and are 'missing the boat'. While engaged learners may detract from the structure of the classroom, the outcome would certainly outweigh the detraction. R. Hall
At our grade level we work on an aviation unit in which we partner with a local aviation museum. The students have the opportunity to tour the museum, work with the curtor and volunteers and even become experts about the exhibits and give tours. It has become a truly engaging learning experience. - E. Remington
I have used a form of engaged learning in my classroom without even realizing that there is a specific curriculum that uses these methods. In music education, we are required to develop lesson plans that incorporate technology and use of the internet for information gathering. These plan are then applied within the normal curriculum as like an addendum to the normal performing aspects of the music curriculum. I would hope that more schools would get on the technology bandwagaon so that these resources that we learn about in school can be applied in the classrooms that we teach in. Most school, even here in Champaign, do not have computer labs that are equipped with good CAI software.
I strongly believe engagement is one of the keys to successful learning. Today's students are use to having input continually from multiple different sources and they use technology as effectively as you or I can ride a bike. Many times, however, they go to school and have to power down and sit in a classroom and listen to a teacher lecture on the material from a textbook. Teachers need to understand that today's students are different and that we should adapt our instruction to meet their needs. Their whole life revolves around technology and we need to prepare them to effectively operate in that environment in a structured and controled way. If we do not show them how to be do it the right way who will? T. Ashley
[edit] References and other links of interest
(2005). Meaningful, engaged learning. [Online]. North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/engaged.htm [February 25, 2005].
Kummerow, Craig. (2005). Engaged learning. [Online]. http://www.gcms.k12.il.us/kummerow/engagedlearn.htm [February 25, 2005]
HANDBOOK of ENGAGED LEARNING PROJECTS
Checklist for Assessing Engaged Learning
Engaged Learning and the Internet
