Engagement | Origin: ED133
This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:
Universal Design for Learning --> Engagement
Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.
This concept is very time-consuming for the instructor. With that being said, I find that the success for students has to be the positive feedback, and critique of the students' work to be time-sensitive. understanding a student's learning style with a ten-week instruction does not give the instructor time to help the success for their student.
I teach adult students, and their time is weighed against being a student, mother/father, and employee. Most times, by the end of the course they discover that what works for some of their colleagues does not always work for them. And sometimes I have witnessed, it takes till the end of the program itself before they discover what their particular learning style is.
The UDL concept seems overwhelming, at first, but I think it can be achievable with incorporation of a few key concepts; namely, creativity, offering the learning material in multiple formats, stating clear objectives and applying them to the students' lives to improve buy-in and motivation to continue learning, incorporating student goals so they develop further buy-in, and providing timely feedback so students can adapt strategies and internalize what works and what doesn't to make informated decisions about their learning progress. I think the most time-consuming part for me in regards to lesson planning, wil be ensuring that all of these concepts are being incorporated throughout the semester.
I think engagement is less about the content of the course and more strongly impacted by the relationship of the student and the instructor.
For myself, Intrusive leadership works. I try find a common bond with each student. Once they see that I am approachable, the level of engagement always increases.
Often I find that thte reclusive students either fear failure or have lack of confidence in their ability to succeed. Students are people as well. Many have been told they could not succeed and were not good enough by many people in multiple facets of their lives. Once you build them up, they will almost teach your class for you. Every environment and audience is different as well.
Know your students!!!!!
Bryan, I could not agree with you more. It comes down to meeting the individual student on their level. Create that bond, know them. Approach them from their own angle. Try to tap into what makes them tick, what motivates and inspires them. I don't think that is overwhelming or impossible, I believe it is essential.
I'd love to encourage my students to reflect and create goals for themselves. As many of us know, self-motivation is key to success in any setting. Without it, we get mired or discouraged. I like the idea of learning about student goals and working on them throughout the semester. Watching students progress and succeed is the best part of the job, so having students commit to something specific to their learning would be a great way to facilitate student success further!
Accessibility of materials tolearn is important, otherwise they will not be able to learn.
I personally believe that keeping students engaged with your lesson is the most important part of the teaching. Students will not pay attention or show any interest if they don't think that the lesson is relevant to them. I also think that reflection is a key to success. Some students need to be reminded often that they actually did learn something from the lesson and this can help encouraging students to keep learning more in the classroom. To me, UDL is a very great framework that teachers should try to follow when implementing any lesson.
Distilling the framework down to three things: provide multiple ways to access content, provide multiple ways for students to demonstrate their learning, and provide multiple ways for the learning to occur. This seems manageable for the teacher and completely student centered. I am imagining that the framework becomes habit over time. It is less of a prescribed approach and more of a paradigm for instruction.
I thought it interesting to be reminded yoiu cannot engage students the same way. We still have to individualize engagement for each student.
It it important to keep students engaged in the learning process.
Within this unit of multiple means of engagement it reemphasized the importance of relationships between student and teacher. All of these sections from self-regulation to persistence & effort all hinge on that relationship piece. If students do not feel like you are in their corner supporting them in their learning then none of the above skills can be attained. While revamping and implementing to a UDL curriculum feels very overwhelming, it is important to realize that Rome was not built in a day and try converting a unit at a time to incorporate all the important facets in UDL.
Make your goals clear up front. Write them on the board. Know your students and how they learn and do the best you can to adjust with each one. Try try again.
In reviewing each element, I think teaching and allowing time for self reflection would be a valuable component for my students.
I took the most away from learning about self-regulation. It hard for people to recognize that this is something that must be learned by most people, especially young adults. Learning how to cope with the stress of the work load and classroom may be some of the hardest tasks for some of our students.
Keeping students engaged is prob the most important thing.
Engagement is a constant struggle when teaching high school. It varies so much from student to student and class to class. I agree that making the information applicable and relevant to students helps. Forming relationships with students also helps a lot. The saying goes, "They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."
One of my biggest struggles teaching high school is helping students develop self-regulation. I think this is a big part of engagement. When students can successfully self-regulate, they can control their engagement even in activities and learning that doesn't interest them. We all have to do tasks, not because we enjoy them but because they just need to get done (who likes filing their taxes?).
Ahh, we're getting into the meat of technique, which is good for my learning style! I'm taking away the best practices section...lots of good notes for me in that part!
