The Psychology of Student Engagement | Origin: EC110
This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:
Reaching High-Levels of Student Engagement --> The Psychology of Student Engagement
Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.
Coming into CTE as a Special Instructor, I am fascinated by the concept of productive talk. Learning how active talk stimulates neural pathways in a student's brain, this concept helps to reinforce our methods of allowing our students to ask questions during each class period, WHILE WE TEACHERS ARE DISSEMINATING THE MATERIAL. My approach in previous teaching opportunities was to have students ask questions as I was presenting, rather than have them wait until the end of me speaking, or the end of the entire lesson. That way, asking questions and getting answers in the moment provides for better retention. But in learning about productive talk, it also fosters discussion from the students amongst their own peers...their classmates. Thereby stimulating their learning through active and engaging discussion.
This concept gives me the parameter to come up with productive talk activities as we prepare our students to take their exams for the FAA Remote Pilot Certificate in the next month and a half. Great material!!
I do take time at the start of the class to let everyone share thoughts or problems. Which leads to productive talk amongst them. Sometime, I step back and observe and try to keep the train running down the track.
These are the notes I took from the introductory session. I am looking forward to learning about neural connections:
Questions students ask themselves: Am I interested? Can I do this? Does this matter?
Describe importance of assignment before going through it (or relevance?)
Conversation is a key to improving literacy.
Studies show that we remember information best when it’s presented at the beginning (primacy) or end (recency) of a sequence, and we forget what we learned in the middle (Myers & DeWall, 2015)
Student engagement isn’t about making lessons louder or flashier. It’s about meeting basic psychological needs: relevance, autonomy, competence, and connection. Students engage more when they understand why something matters, feel some control over how they learn, believe they can succeed, and feel seen and supported
Productive Talk , small group discussion, Peer Q&A, will help students learn, when they hear it through there own words.
I am using a similar type, I have students using a white board talk amongst themselves about a question I give , and they answer in a timed section. I can see formatively how well there learning and they work together to discuss possible answers.
Discussions, productive talk encourage the formation of neural pathways more than other activities.
I plan to build strong relationships, create relevant lessons, and offer choices to help students stay engaged. Eliminating busy work and having interactive assignments and discussions.
It felt really good to see "Eliminate Busy Work" I have found students do not learn well when you just keep talking and throwing work at them. They like to learn from you and then try it on their own and when they need help or gudience they will ask for it.
This lesson taught me to make learning interactive, relevant, and fun. Use discussions, real-world examples, and active learning strategies.
The section where it highlighted the importance of periodically reviewing common terms and reinforcing course ideas to combat the loss of engagement and investment was very informative and useful. I plan on implementing this structure to my course as soon as possible.
I learned that to increase participation allow students to lead discussions.
De-emphasizing grades in the classroom is important because it helps shift the focus from performance to learning. It also encourages intrinsic motivation as students are more likely to engage deeply with material when they are motivated by curiosity and interest rather than the pressure of grades.
I appreciated that illustration of the band time, and how most absorption of in instruction happens in during the introduction and conclusion.
In order to fully engage a student in the lesson plan the teacher needs to make sure they answer the students questions about engagement: Am I interested? Can I do this? and Does this matter?. When these questions are answered the students at least have chance to become engaged with the lesson. In order to increase student engagement I would like to inform the students why the lesson is important and increasing student conversations about the topic in a pair talk would increase their overall interest.
This material reminded me that listening to students talking after class or outside of class gives me a chance to hear how they received and understood what we talked about. I compare it to them chewing on the lesson.
I learned that students need to engage in productive talk to add value to their learning
Student input gives the students a voice where they can express their thoughts and share their ideas and opinions with the class.
I learned that students retain more info at the beginning & ending but not as much in the middle.
Productive talk could be beneficial in the learning process.
