Introduction to Student Engagement
Pathway Overview
On this pathway we will work to build your foundational understanding of student engagement by exploring definitions and evidence of student engagement and common causes for student disengagement. To build this foundational understanding, you will complete the following:
Examine multiple definitions of student engagement including cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement, and emotional engagement, and the role that each plays in students’ overall engagement in learning. As part of this examination, you will examine the concept of student engagement through multiple stakeholder lenses including student, teacher, administrator, and parent to compare and contrast how those groups’ definitions may be the same, and how they may differ.
Explore and consider many different causes for student disengagement. Here you will take a deep-dive into the causes of student disengagement related to the learning opportunities provided as you examine learning opportunities through the students’ lens of emotions, interest, perceived importance, and perceived efficacy.
Critically analyze, example evaluation criteria for student engagement to deepen understanding of the criteria and the expectations contained within.
Learning Objectives
Objective 1: Participants will understand the meaning of student engagement.
Objective 2: Participants will examine the root cause of disengagement.
Objective 3: Participants will explore causes of disengagement that are often overlooked, particularly for historically marginalized students, such as their perceptions of personal importance in the classroom and their sense of belonging in school.
Objective 4: Participants will explore the characteristics of an engaging classroom.
Objective 5: Participants will describe evidence of student engagement.
Objective 6: Participants will identify personal strength and challenges in their own classroom practices as related to student engagement.
Impact on Classroom Practice and Student Learning
By completing this pathway, participants will be able to assess their classroom environment for characteristics of student engagement and will be able to notice disengagement in their students.
