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Building Engagement in the Classroom

Christopher Reese

Teacher of English, Teacher Trainer (CELT-P/S, CELTA), International Speaking Examiner, Materials Writer

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Quotes from teachers:

“My teenagers are so unmotivated! It’s so difficult to keep them interested in the lesson!”
“I hate teaching online! I can’t see their faces, and I feel like I’m talking to no one!”
“Some of my adult students don’t want to do the tasks I’m setting them, they just want to do coursebook exercises all the time!”
“Whenever we do reading or listening in the classroom, my students say it’s a waste of time - they think they can do this at home.”
“Some of my learners have even refused to do tasks, and just sat quietly while the others were working.”
My students seem so disconnected after what they’ve been through…

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What is engagement?

In education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education.

https://www.edglossary.org/student-engagement/#:~:text=In%20education%2C%20student%20engagement%20refers,and%20progress%20in%20their%20education.

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“Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as motivation.” - Dornyei (2001:i)

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Attempts to explain motivation

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What might motivate Jackie to get up and jog?

She enjoys jogging.
She made a resolution that she will do some jogging every day to maintain her health.
She would like to lose weight.
Rupert appears jogging along the path and she wants to join him.
Her athletic coach told her to keep running.
She is acting in a well-paid TV commercial advertising running shoes and her break is over.
A large dog has suddenly started chasing her.
It’s just started raining.

(Dornyei 2001:9)

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General types of motivation:

Choice Motivation:

The decision to “begin” doing something
Setting goals and planning to achieve them

Executive Motivation:

The motivation to keep doing something, to persist with challenges, etc.
Monitoring goal completion
Feeling belonging to a group / having a group of peers

Critical Retrospection:

Analysing if a goal was achieved or not
The ability to reflect on what was done, attribute success / failure to specific causes

(Dornyei and Ushioda 2011)

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Look at the following behaviours - which do you think are most likely to improve engagement?

Negotiating the rules together - and enforcing them
Providing personalised topics / topics which appeal to the interests and needs of the group
Focusing on ice-breakers and getting to know you activities at the beginning of the course, rather than starting the coursebook immediately
Responding to learners when they ask for help
Showing concern when things aren’t going well
Greeting the learners and using their names
Learning something unique about each learner and mentioning it to them occasionally
When the teacher moves around in class
Encouraging and enabling the class to learn more about each other
Offering concrete help and feedback
Correcting / marking papers and tests promptly

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Look at the following behaviours - which do you think are most likely to improve engagement?

Negotiating the rules together - and enforcing them
Providing personalised topics / topics which appeal to the interests and needs of the group
Focusing on ice-breakers and getting to know you activities at the beginning of the course, rather than starting the coursebook immediately
Responding to learners when they ask for help
Showing concern when things aren’t going well
Greeting the learners and using their names
Learning something unique about each learner and mentioning it to them occasionally
When the teacher moves around in class
Encouraging and enabling the class to learn more about each other
Offering concrete help and feedback
Correcting / marking papers and tests promptly

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Activity - “Hey, don’t you…?”

Level: Pre-Intermediate - Upper-Intermediate (with different language foci)

Ask learners to choose 5 of their classmates and write down 1 thing they “think” they remember about each person. If they know for sure, or if they don’t know at all, they shouldn’t write it.

Demonstrate this with a few students

Learners mingle and ask their classmates if the fact is true or not. If it’s true, they find out more - if it’s false, they find out what’s really true.
Learners report in open class on what they remembered correctly.

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For lower levels:

A: Hey, don’t you (watch Teen Wolf)?

B: Yeah, I do!

A: Who’s your favorite character?

For higher levels:

A: Hey, you watch Teen Wolf, don’t you?

B: Nope, sorry!

A: Really? What’s your favorite show, then?

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Why does this help?

The teacher - as part of setting the task - demonstrates that they remember little details about the learners’ lives (not only their grades!).
The students, likewise, also show that they remember things about each other - building connections between the group.
This provides a sense of community.

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The role of success

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a belief or expectation that an individual holds about a future event that manifests because the individual holds it (Good Therapy, 2015)

In short, in order to have success - we need to succeed!

Teachers can facilitate this by:

Providing sufficient preparation for learners
Offering help
Allowing and encouraging learners to cooperate
Making the criteria for success as clear as possible

And, if necessary, considering how “success” might be different for different learners

Provide a “model” of success
As much as possible, remove obstacles to learning (Dornyei 2001a:58)

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An example lesson plan (from exam writing):

Warmer
Introduce learners to the prompt, elicit key points from them
Give learners a model to read for general understanding
Analyse the model together with learners
Create a checklist of key points / things to do
Learners brainstorm their ideas how to answer the prompt from learners
Learners draft their first version of the essay / letter etc.
Learners read each other’s essay and give feedback based on the checklist
Learners edit their initial drafts
Learners submit the draft to the teacher for feedback

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The role of awareness

“But teacher, we’ve studied this already! We know everything!”

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A grammar lesson:

When we arrived, the film had already started.
We sat there for a few minutes, but we couldn’t understand anything.
After we had been watching the film for about half an hour, we left.
While we were leaving the cinema, we saw that we had gone to the wrong theatre!

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A grammar lesson:

When we _________ (arrive), the film had already started.
We _________ (sit) there for a few minutes, but we couldn’t understand anything.
After we _________ (watch) the film for about half an hour, we left.
While we _________ (leave) the cinema, we saw that we _________ (go) to the wrong theatre!

Test

Teach

Test

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Why does this help engagement?

It shows the learners the gaps in their knowledge - and that they need to pay attention!
It also shows learners their improvement - they should do better on the second test!
It helps to keep the lesson efficient, and maximise time for the learners to practice.
It provides the learners the opportunity to help / teach each other

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What kills motivation?

Not having a good relationship with the teacher
Not having a good relationship with other learners
Not receiving attention from the teacher
Only receiving negative attention from the teacher
Public criticism
Being overcorrected (particularly in open class)
Getting meaningless feedback
Not understanding “why” we’re doing something
Not understanding what to do
Personality mismatch
Not feeling progress
Doing the same thing all the time

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How does this change in crisis?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thoughtco.com%2Fmaslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4582571&psig=AOvVaw1f9Yfh5SgA3yJAO3HgeAAW&ust=1648043064621000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCIj-qIHt2fYCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.change-management-coach.com%2Fkubler-ross.html&psig=AOvVaw3RnFhI_JQ8FcO_JpUIzbXs&ust=1648043116845000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCOii65vt2fYCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

Online / Offline Differences:

When it comes to teaching learners in crisis situations, there are a few other things to keep in mind. We’re going to need two concepts to help us. The first one, which may be familiar to many of us, is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - but while we know about it, it’s going to be useful to analyse what this means in our current situation. If we’re working with refugee groups or displaced peoples in an OFFLINE setting, then it’s going to be very important that - as much as possible - our learning environment satisfies leanrers’ physiological needs and provides a feeling of safety. This means that we should make every effort to ensure that schools are warm, comfortable, welcoming environments, and many students will be apprehensive of new teachers and their classmates. Getting to know you activities and ice breakers are going to prove vital in integrating new students into the groups and creating a sense of community, and - notably - learning will not happen until this point. Let it take as long as it takes. For those of us teaching ONLINE, we will find ourselves unable to satisfy the learners’ physiological or safety needs, however, we can provide a helpful, supportive atmosphere online to support them - i.e. a sense of community. This means providing support and a safe space online for the learners - and remember that what constitutes a “safe space” is different for everyone. Some learners may feel comfortable talking about what’s happened - or may even need to as an outlet for their emotions - but some learners may desire just the opposite, an escape from what’s going on. We can provide this for them, and it may be worth taking a few minutes before and after the lesson to give a space to those who need to talk.

The other concept which is going to prove necessary here is the Kubler-Russ Change Curve - also sometimes known as the “grief curve”. The main point here is what happens when we experience unexpected / unplanned / unpleasant change - the steps from shock and denial to anger, bargaining, and depression. While the odds of us being able to “skip ahead” to the acceptance and problem-solving stages are rather low, we do need to bear in mind that learners who are experiencing the first stages may show emotional instability - and we are the same. If you are a Ukrainian teacher, or - like me - a teacher who has been affected by the conflict, it will be important for you to monitor your own emotional state while dealing with learners. Moreover, even if you haven’t been directly affected by the conflict, it is possible to experience “secondary trauma” from extensive work from those who have directly experienced it. It’s important that you also find things to engage with in the lesson which are not related to trauma, otherwise you may burn out.

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`There are no magic motivational buttons that can be pushed to “make'' people want to learn, work hard, and act in a responsible manner. Similarly, no one can be directly “forced'' to care about something. . . Facilitation, not control, should be the guiding idea in attempts to motivate humans.'

(Martin Ford 1992:202)

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But this seems like so much to remember! How do I keep track of everything?!

Guilloteaux and Dornyei 2008 - Motivation Orientation for Language Learning (MOLT)

Teacher discourse: Is the teacher arousing attention? Promoting autonomy? Stating / providing communicative purpose? Making aims clear?
Participation structure: How are learners working? Individually / pairs / groups? Sitting or standing? Are all learners participating equally?
Activity design: Is the task competitive or collaborative? Is it challenging? Is there a clear product / result for the learners?
Encouraging positive self-reflection: Are learners being praised authentically? Are learners evaluating their own work / language? Are learners reflecting on / noticing their progress?

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References

Dornyei, Z. (2001) Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Oxford University Press, UK.

Dornyei, Z. and Ushioda, E. (2011) Teaching and Researching Motivation, 2nd Ed. Pearson Education Limited, UK.

Guilloteaux, M., & Dörnyei, Z. (2008). Motivating Language Learners: A Classroom-Oriented Investigation of the Effects of Motivational Strategies on Student Motivation. TESOL Quarterly, 42(1), 55-77. Retrieved December 16, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40264425

Hattie, J. (2012) Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximising Impact on Learning. Routledge, USA.

Lightbown, P. and Spada, N. (2013) How Languages are Learned, 4th Ed. Oxford University Press, UK.

Scrivener, J. (2011) Classroom Management Techniques. Cambridge University Press, UK.