Engagement - Definition Engagement Definition Oxford dictionary - - PDF document

15/06/2012 1

Energy in action: Perspectives on student engagement

June 6, 2012

Mary Ainley University of Melbourne Australia

maryda@unimelb.edu.au

Engagement Engagement - Definition Definition

• Oxford dictionary (1999): to engage – betrothal,

drawing battle line, employment … conveys meaning of being occupied with, committed to … requires that the object be specified.

• From mechanics: gears interlocking for the

purpose of moving the parts of a machine.

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Engaging Education Engaging Education

• Engaging as verb puts the focus on the

commitment of the person.

• Engaging as adjective puts the focus on the

character of the educational experiences/activities

• r system – the task matters.
• Engaging education implies an interactive unit –

person and task.

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Three Metaphors Three Metaphors

Hook Switch Gears

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Hook Hook

The character of the activity is engaging; has properties that will attract

• attention. For example:
• novel
• ambiguous
• puzzling

Issue: maintaining the synchrony of person and educational activity.

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The Age

School centre opens gateway to culture

Benjamin Preiss Higher Education Reporter June 1, 2012

Tian Yu teaches Chinese Chi exercises in Keysborough Secondary College's new Confucius Centre.

Photo: Penny Stephens

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Mr Yu, 27, believes the Exploratorium marks an innovative new chapter in teaching languages to high school students. The room, launched officially last week, is equipped with five touch screen panels loaded with information about Chinese language and culture. Mr Yu sets a task and students can use the panels to find the answers. ''They can incorporate that into whatever task I set them whether it's a role play or writing a letter,'' he said. '‘ I like this self-initiated approach because each student learns in their

• wn way.''

Mr Yu, who moved to Melbourne as a child from the countryside near Shanghai, said the Chinese decorations and digital technology helped pique the students' curiosity.

''It's like a hook to get the kids interested and we go from there.''

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Switch Switch

The person is turned on as soon as they encounter the activity. They are primed and ready to be engaged. They bring to their learning

• attitudes
• orientations
• predispositions
• existing knowledge

Issue: How do students acquire these characteristics?

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Best holiday snap? Student sends family into space

Bridie Smith May 15, 2012

Michael Gruber, 15, sent a family photo into space as part of a school project. Photo: Angela Wylie The Age Some examples of school projects that generated interested learners …

Pupils passionate about big picture

Jewel Topsfield July 2, 2011

The Age

Yea High School students Matt Dickson and Sophie Watts.

Photo: Rebecca Hallas (Digitally altered image)

Pupils passionate about big picture

Jewel Topsfield July 2, 2011

Yea High School students Matt Dickson and Sophie Watts.

Photo: Rebecca Hallas (Digitally altered image)

The Age

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Students in the Big Picture program at Yea High, for example, must still attend compulsory maths, English and sport lessons. Even so, the difference Between year 8 at Yea High, and the year 9 Big Picture stream is like, well, chalk and cheese. ''I love it,'' Matt says. ''It's more freedom … I've become more focused on actually learning what I want. I've also found out I'm interested in other things. I never thought I'd like evolution; I thought evolution was apes and that's it, but I wanted to do a passion project on prehistoric life. Our adviser said it would be good to get an idea of evolution first and when I dug deeper it became a whole passion project.'' MATT Dickson is obsessed with aviation. His animated chatter darts from the history of flight to gravity and the four forces that keep planes in the air. '‘ It's been a passion since I was four or five, it's been ages,'' Matt says. ''My dad and I went to Avalon airshow and it sparked something inside. I want to do everything on aviation.''

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Gear metaphor Gear metaphor – the process the process

• Top gear – interlocked and moving forward,

directed, focused, getting somewhere efficiently.

• Low gear – interlocked but laboured, moving

forward but not going anywhere fast.

• Reverse gear – going in the opposite direction;

disaffected, dropping out … Issue: to understand the process

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Three Forms of Engagement Three Forms of Engagement

(Fredericks et al. 2004) (Fredericks et al. 2004)

• Behavioural
• Cognitive
• Emotional

(see also Schooling Issues Digest 2005/2: Frydenberg, Ainley and Russell , Student Motivation and Engagement.)

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Behavioural Behavioural Engagement Engagement

Indicators:

• Rule following, adhering to norms, identification with

expected patterns of behaviour

• Involvement in learning tasks, effort, persistence,

attention, class participation

• Participation in school-related activities including

extra-curricular activities

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Behavioural Behavioural Engagement Engagement

For example:

• PISA 2000 – International Study of reading

achievement

• Participation measured using attendance records (attendance

and absenteeism in the two weeks prior to the survey)

• Self-report measure of ‘sense of belonging’
• LSAY (Fullarton, 2002)
• Participation measured in terms of involvement in extra-

curricular activities.

• Interpreted as an index of identification with schooling

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Cognitive Engagement Cognitive Engagement

Indicators:

• Investment in learning, learning goals
• Self-regulation, being strategic, making decisions
• Applying the skills, strategies and capacities that have

been acquired

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Cognitive Engagement Cognitive Engagement

For example:

• Achievement goal measures of students’ purpose in

learning; different forms of cognitive engagement

• mastery; performance-approach; performance-avoidance;

work avoidance

• Self-regulation strategies
• balance of deep, elaboration, or transformational strategies

relative to surface or reproductive strategies

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Emotional Engagement Emotional Engagement

Indicators:

• Affective reactions in the classroom – interest, boredom,

happiness, anxiety

• Affective reactions to the school
• Affective reactions to teachers
• Identification with the school – sense of belonging

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Contrasting Extremes Contrasting Extremes

• Flow : becoming so involved in the task that
• It seems to be effortless
• May lose all sense of time
• The activity is all important
• Learned helplessness:
• Attribution of failures to fixed, personal inadequacies,

especially low ability

• Effort is seen as useless
• Students simply give up

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Interest and Challenge: Interest and Challenge: the Experience the Experience

• Questionnaires have been the most widely used form of

measurement for motivation

• Questions asking students about their general or typical

way of responding to achievement domains e.g., mathematics, reading

• Motivation is a dynamic process – the general needs to be

supplemented with information about specific states that

• ccur while students interact with specific tasks.

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Measuring the dynamics of Measuring the dynamics of motivation motivation

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The following slides present some findings from studies we have conducted where the primary aim has been to identify significant motivational processes that distinguish students who engage with the task and students who do not engage with the task. We have used a interactive research tool – software called Between the Lines (BTL). Two forms have been used: one involves presenting texts each divided into three sections. Students decide the order and how much of each text they will read. The second form which was used for the findings reported here, involves open-ended problem tasks and students have access to information resources to help them arrive at an answer. Students record notes in an electronic notepad and when they come to construct their answer they have to depend on the notes they have taken. Performance has generally been assessed as the quality of the argument to support the answer.

• Presenting students with a challenging tasks appropriate

to their educational level.

• Tasks structured to require choices and decisions that are

all monitored.

• Probes inserted into the tasks requiring immediate ratings
• f feelings and thoughts.

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Answer Submitted Pre-task Task Explained Post-task On-Task Interest and other emotions Self – Efficacy, Task difficulty Planning Interest and other emotions Resource use: time, order of choice Note-taking Interest and other emotions Self – Efficacy, Task difficulty Quality of argument

Design of Problem Solving Software

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The on-task screen to measure the in-the-moment experience of interest. The on-task screen to measure the in-the-moment experience of interest.

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1 2 3 4 5

Rating Proportion of Respondents Maths Test Holiday Responses to two hypothetical scenarios used to test the validity

• f the on

in a number of studies with students from Grade 5 to Year 10. Responses to two hypothetical scenarios used to test the validity

• f the on-task interest ratings – this pattern has been replicated

in a number of studies with students from Grade 5 to Year 10.

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1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 Pre-task Mid-task Post-task

On-task measure

Mean rating

Task 1:High Task 1:Medium Task 1: Low

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In one study with Year 9 students cluster analysis of the interest ratings at three points (pre three trajectories. (The task was a fantasy investigative task requiring students to search and weigh evidence) In one study with Year 9 students cluster analysis of the interest ratings at three points (pre-task, mid-task and post-task) yielded three trajectories. (The task was a fantasy investigative task requiring students to search and weigh evidence)

Measuring emotional Measuring emotional engagement: On engagement: On-task feelings task feelings

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One of the on task measures required students to report how they were feeling pre Theory and One of the on-task measures required students to report how they were feeling pre-, mid- and post-task. Emotions based on Izard’s Differential Emotions Theory and Pekrun’s Academic Emotions Theory.

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 neutral sad angry anxious hopeless relieved hopeful proud happy

Emotions Proportion of group pre-task mid-task post-task

Cluster 1 High Interest

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This figure shows the changes in reported feelings across the task for the HIGH interest cluster. Notice the proportion reporting positive feelings and the changes across the task. This figure shows the changes in reported feelings across the task for the HIGH interest cluster. Notice the proportion reporting positive feelings and the changes across the task.

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0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 neutral sad angry anxious hopeless relieved hopeful proud happy

Emotions Proportion of group pre-task mid-task post-task

Cluster 2 Medium Interest

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This figure shows the changes in reported feelings across the task for the MEDIUM interest cluster proportion reporting relief at the end of the task. This figure shows the changes in reported feelings across the task for the MEDIUM interest cluster – notice the high proportion of neutral and the proportion reporting relief at the end of the task.

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 neutral sad angry anxious hopeless relieved hopeful proud happy

Emotions Proportion of group pre-task mid-task post-task

Cluster 3 Low Interest

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This figure shows the changes in reported feelings across the task for the LOW interest cluster. Notice the proportion reporting negative feelings and the increase across the task. This figure shows the changes in reported feelings across the task for the LOW interest cluster. Notice the proportion reporting negative feelings and the increase across the task.

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Person and Situation Person and Situation – Change Change

• r stability across tasks
• r stability across tasks

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Over a number of curriculum-based tasks we found very similar trajectories of interest – usually two groups, MEDIUM and LOW interest trajectories. When the interest groups were cross-tabulated over pairs of tasks group we found that there was a high level of stability. Generally students were responding in the same way to different tasks. This is of concern if students in the LOW interest trajectory are always experiencing low interest and negative emotions. However, there were some students who responded differently to different tasks. The following slides show the pattern for a group of students who were in the LOW interest trajectory on task 2 and the MEDIUM interest trajectory on a third task. On the third task they initially reported LOW interest but as the task progressed their interest increased until they were indistinguishable from the MEDIUM interest group.

1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

Pre-task Mid-task Post-task

Mean rating

On-task measure Task 2: Medium Task 2: Low Task 3: Medium Task 3: Low

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Interest trajectories across these two tasks were relatively similar. Interest trajectories across these two tasks were relatively similar.

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1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 pre-task mid-task post-task

Measurement Mean interest low-medium medium-medium maryda@unimelb.edu.au

The task 3 interest trajectory for students showing the same trajectory for tasks 2 and 3 is shown in red (medium task 3 for students who on task 2 were in the low interest group (low started lower than other medium interest students but increased as they work through the task The task 3 interest trajectory for students showing the same trajectory for tasks 2 and 3 is shown in red (medium-medium). The blue shows the trajectory on task 3 for students who on task 2 were in the low interest group (low-medium). Their level of interest started lower than other medium interest students but increased as they work through the task 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 pre mid post

Mean Interest HIScaff HiNonScaf LIScaf LINonScaf

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In a recent study with Year 8 students the fantasy investigative task was altered in an attempt to try and engage students who started with LOW interest. Order of access to the information resources was fixed (previously students able to choose) and scaffolding prompts were inserted at the beginning and end of their accessing each resource. Students were classified as HIGH (pre-task interest rating of 4 or 5) or LOW (rating of 1-3). When compared with a previous cohort, scaffolding did not make much difference to the HIGH interest group trajectory but did significantly change the LOW interest trajectory.

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Measuring cognitive Measuring cognitive engagement: Patterns of engagement: Patterns of resource use resource use

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Through the software we can monitor which resources are accessed and for how long. This is being used to identify the sorts of strategies students use in their processing of resource information. Answer Submitted Pre-task Task Explained Post-task On-Task Interest and other emotions Self – Efficacy, Task difficulty Planning Interest and other emotions Resource use: time, order of choice Note-taking Interest and other emotions Self – Efficacy, Task difficulty Quality of argument

Design of Problem Solving Software

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100 200 300 400 500 600 Pi Ri R3 Pi Ri R3 R2 R1 Pi Ri R2 R3 R2 R1 Pi Ri Pi Ri

Sequence of resource access Time (seconds) 100 200 300 400 500 600 Pi Ri R1 Ri R1 R2 R3 Sequence of resource access Time (seconds)

Small amounts of time with resource 3 open More than 5 minutes with resource instruction screen Systematic accessing of resources 1-3

Person and task on a larger Person and task on a larger scale scale

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From PISA 2006 From PISA 2006

Issues for being confronted in science education:

• Problem of how to trigger, maintain and develop

students’ interest in science.

• How important is it for students to enjoy science if they

are to develop an enduring interest in science?

• What other motivational factors contribute to

development of interest in science?

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Person and Situation Person and Situation

Person level: students’ characteristic way of responding to science - attitudinal measures in PISA 2006

• General interest in learning science
• Enjoyment of science
• Personal value of science
• Participation in current science activities
• Intended future participation in science activities

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Task level: students’ in the moment response to a specific task.

• In PISA 2006 – embedded interest items.
• Opportunity to test relations between general and

situational variables.

• Students’ expressed intention to engage further with

learning science.

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Embedded interest items: Example Embedded interest items: Example

Problem Topic – Investigating tobacco smoking and its effects on the human body. “How much interest do you have in the following information? – Knowing how tar in tobacco reduces lung efficiency. – Understanding why nicotine is addictive. – Learning how the body recovers after stopping smoking.

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15/06/2012 23 Australian Students (N=14,170, 15 year olds)

PVS = personal value of science SCK = science knowledge ENJ = enjoyment of science INS = general interest in science EIS = embedded interest in science

Conclusion Conclusion

• What is particularly significant about these findings is

that the measures are at different levels of specificity.

• Both enjoyment of science and interest in learning

science were measured as the way students generally feel about science.

• The embedded interest measure referred to reactions

to a specific topic that was in the forefront of the students’ attention - a situational measure.

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Cont… Cont…

• Enjoyment and interest are important experiences that

influence students’ engagement and re-engagement with the content of science topics.

• In addition the role of the importance of personal value
• f science in this network of relations associated with

students’ engagement with science topics should not be

• verlooked.

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Thank you …

For any of the reference material associated with this presentation contact me at:

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