Fostering Student Engagement in Learning
The best method for fostering student engagement is to have students become active participants in the learning process. Simply put, individuals are motivated to participate in those activities which they find inherently rewarding. Reward may fall into two categories: 1) those that are intrinsic to the activity, such as eating a preferred food or playing a “fun” game and 2) those are extrinsic to the activity, such as receiving praise or some type of honor that is unrelated to performing the actual activity. While at first these rewards may seem unrelated, in actuality they are often intertwined in any given activity. For instance, a student who is diligently painting a picture for art class may find this an enjoyable activity (intrinsic reward) while, at the same time, receiving praise from the teacher (extrinsic reward). It is also true that what may be rewarding at one point in time does change. Thus, while playing a new game might be rewarding the first few times, and therefore a source of motivation it can lose its impact after the novelty wears off.
The continued engagement of most people attempting to master a given task, whether that be learning to play a musical instrument, play tennis, do long division, or use a computer, is sustained by a complex mixture of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. The efficacy of the reward will vary as a function of the characteristics of different learners, the task itself, and the context in which the learning occurs. These variables include:
Characteristics of the learner:
Inclination of the learner to participate in new learning experiences that may involve the mastery of difficult tasks, along with the acceptance of risk (that they may not perform to expectations.)
Expectations of the learner with regard to their ability to succeed at mastering the new task.
Performance goals set by the learner which are aligned with his or her perceptions with regard to the level of mastery expected.
Characteristics of the task:
Perceived difficulty of learning the new task.
How much learning is required before the student perceives some measure of progress.
The shape of the learning curve; i.e. how quickly learning is going to take place at each point along the continuum.
The “match” between the characteristics of the learner and the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards to be derived from learning the new task. (e.g. does the tennis player enjoy the sport and possess natural athletic abilities?)
Characteristics of the environment:
Frequency of reward from teachers or parents to ensure continued motivation and perseverance.
Assistance and support provided by others, such as teachers or parents.
Degree of outside distractions that interfere with continued involvement in learning the task.
When one mentions characteristics of good teachers, two dimensions are usually emphasized. The first is the ability of the teacher to explain things and present the material in such a way as to make the new task easily understandable to the student, thus making the process smooth flowing. Secondly, is that all good teachers understand that student engagement is a necessary prerequisite for learning to occur. Sustaining engagement is near impossible if students find learning of the new material too difficult but easier if the teacher is able to assist students to understand the nature of the task and design instructional activities in such a way as to permit students to chart continuing progress. |
