Week 6: Student Engagement Research Info

In education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education. -Source

• (Source) Cognitive engagement is difficult to measure but it aims to look at "something that goes on in young people’s heads". The paper describes that cognitively-engaged students concentrate, focus on achieving goals, are flexible and cope with failure.
• Behavioural engagement ensures that students are physically ready and willing to learn. It is the most frequent style of reported engagement, however it tends to be used to comment on students’ negative behaviours only.
• Emotional engagement refers to the relationships between student and their teachers, classmates and the school. As results from the Te Kotahitanga research show this can be particularly important for Māori students as well as students in general.

There is a tendency for teachers to identify uncooperative and low-level disruptive disengagement, but not recognise larger groups of students who are quietly disengaged. Improvement in learning at all levels comes from identifying positive levels of engagement and then developing the teaching behaviours that develop them best.

"It is important that students feel free to make mistakes, join in discussions and are motivated to try again. This can lead to learning where the student can shape his or her own goals." -Ministry of Education.

The actions in Ka Hikitia – Managing for Success are based on what evidence shows are the most effective ways to achieve system change for Young People Engaged in Learning: (Source)

• Increasing professional learning and capability of teachers 
• high-quality teaching makes the most difference to student achievement across the sector
• research has identified the characteristics of teaching and professional development that improve Māori learner outcomes. 
• Focusing on responsive and accountable professional leadership 
• principals and school leaders who focus on teaching and learning as the major part of their leadership role improve outcomes for learners. 
• Increasing whānau and iwi authority and involvement in education 
• parents, families and whānau play a critical role in supporting their children’s learning right from the start
• learning is more effective when whānau and iwi are valued partners in the education process and when educators, whānau and iwi are open to learning from and with one another.