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Engaging Students and Ensuring Success

As a classroom teacher, I (Janet) rarely considered the importance of student engagement until I attended a national conference on the topic. What I learned at the conference, and through my own study upon returning home, transformed my thinking about the impact I could have on student engagement in my classroom. Goslin’s (2003) book, Engaging Minds: Motivation and Learning in America’s Schools, reminded me that we all know what it feels and looks like to be engaged in learning, but we often overlook or take for granted the immense amount of motivation and effort sometimes required to achieve it. Think of a toddler learning to talk or a small child learning to ride a bicycle. Experiences like these sometimes require a considerable amount of encouragement and praise to sustain one’s engagement, while at other times the learner gets so excited and caught up in the activity that the learning alone is enough to keep him or her engaged (Goslin, 2003). At one time or another, we have all experienced this deep engagement in learning; we just have to find a way to recreate that feeling in our classrooms for our students. Student engagement drives students toward success or, if absent, a lack of engagement leaves students idling or even going in reverse. All good teachers know that more learning takes place when students are actually engaged in the curriculum. Yet, we often get so caught up in preparing students to pass the state’s standardized tests that we forget the importance and possibility of real engagement. Even though creating an engaging learning environment can at times seem overwhelming, knowing the impact teachers can have on student engagement can offer a new perspective on teaching practices and the expectations we hold for our students. This article explores the concept of student engagement. Specifically, we ask: What motivates students to see what they do in school as relevant, interesting, motivating, and ultimately transformative?