Reflective: The issue seems to be an echo of what I read once in John Dewey’s article entitled as ‘My Pedagogic Creed’).’The education process’, as Dewey articulated, ‘has two sides, one psychological and one sociological and neither can be subordinated to the other, or neglected’ (as mentioned in Flinders et al. 2009). Elizabeth (2010) also pointed out these two ‘aspects’ in a slightly different way. I must say that I am quite amazed by the way the author explored the concept of ‘student engagement’ in a sequential manner and how she has separated this concept from its general form keeping her discussion from a ‘college class’ point of view. I am focusing on the issues she has brought in her first chapter that, I think, is an excellent summary of her comprehensive understanding on ‘student engagement’. I fully agree with her proposition that ‘student engagement’ is a synergetic product NOT a sum of active learning and motivation. It reminded me how often I found this to be true in my case.
Explanatory: Isolating ‘motivation’ and ‘active learning’ from each other will produce a ‘zero’ result in achieving the desired level of ‘student engagement’. We, for example, appreciate subjects like Science and Maths for their natural ability to keep the students engaged. To me, it is the requirement of frequent lab activities or practical observations (active learning) and drive for invention or solution (motivation) that ensure a formidable level of ‘student engagement’. But does that mean Social Science subjects like Business or Economics or History do not have the ‘element of engagement’? Well, I am not sure. At the moment I can say that as a Business Studies teacher I have to make conscious efforts to make some of my students engaged in learning. One reason could be that Business Studies neither have the scope for frequent ‘lab classes’ (lesser element of activity) nor the excitement of invention. So, I insist activity-based learning (which I believe is purely a part of instructional creativity) along with extrinsic motivational measures to ensure maximum involvement from the students. When I put a close look into the mind of a ‘disengaged’ student I have found him or her either not sure why she is doing what she is doing (lack of motivation) or she already knows what is being taught or she has problem with the method of instruction. I know other instructors like me can come up with thousands of other reasons. Ultimately all those reasons can be broadly categorized either under a ‘motivational problem’ or ‘instructional mismanagement’.
Decisional: So, what we need is a synergic blend of both creative instructional methods and effective motivational tools to ensure a desired level of ‘engagement’ from each of our students. As far as the active learning part is concerned I do it by introducing instructional methods like role-plays, debates, projects etc. Now comes the most challenging part- motivating the students. I believe the art of motivation starts with knowing and understanding each student in the class. This helps to derive the needs and nature of student and, hence, to decide the right motivational tools for him/her. On the second phase we should make them believe that they have made a logical decision by choosing the course. This is really important. Discussing course objectives, evaluation methods, targeted skills, career potential can be really helpful in this regard. The third phase of motivation can be focused entirely on building their confidence and enthusiasm by appreciating their previous experience, existing skill and initiatives.
However, things are not so easy as they sound to be. Understanding human mind is one of the biggest challenges. The procedure comes along with potential threat of raising lots of ethical and social issues that may lead misunderstand the purpose of education. Moreover, other extrinsic factors like resource access, class size also influence the motivational process and, unfortunately, these are the factors that are being ignored or taken less care of in many institutions. As a whole, ‘student engagement’ is a complex and integrated process and each element of this should be addressed comprehensively.
References Barkley, F. E. (2010). Student Engagement Techniques. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Dewey, J. (2009). My Pedagogic Creed. In D. J. Flinders, & S. J. Thorton (Eds.), The Curriculum Studies Reader. NY: Routledge.