Niagara School District

Student EngagementImproving Student Outcomes

Feb 21, 2012Rod Wilkins,RW81@nyu.edu

Metropolitan Center for Urban EducationTechnical Assistance Center on Disproportionalityhttp://education.nyu.edu/metrocenter/212-998-5100

Goals

• Examining Student Engagement/ Disengagement Practices

• Making connections to student outcomes Policy and Practice

• Student Engagement Closing System Gap

• What works well for us now?• What could we do better?• What barriers do we need to overcome?• What will it take to improve student achievement?

Questions To Ponder

Who is in the room today?• Titles• Experience levels• Cultural Backgrounds• Languages

INTRODUCTION

If we don’t build relationships with our students, what’s bound

to happen to the vulnerable students that have school as

the only protective factor?

Create a list of the things you consider when you think of the concept “Student Engagement”

Classroom –Based Asset-Focused

• RELATIONSHIP BUILDING- -Teacher Student Relationship Quality (TSRQ)

-Teacher Expectation (78)

-Learning Goals- mastery vs performance, task vs ego goals, learning vs performance

• INTERSUBJECTIVITY- how values, interest, and learning priorities align

teacher and student

- Personally Meaningful and Relevant to students

- Cultural concerns and interpretations of what is considered culture- is culture innate,

learned, variable, homogenous, situational (111)

• INFORMATION-PROCESS QUALITY-memory, problem solving,

thinking and learning

- Cognitive load and working memory – the area of research concludes that humans can

process between 5-9 separate bits of information

- Schema-based instruction- patterns, regularities, typologies over one discrete best method

Student Guiding Functions

• SELF EFFICACY- the believe that one can successfully execute the behavior required to produce the desired outcomes

• SELF REGULATION- self generated thoughts, feelings, and actions that are systemically designed to affect one’s knowledge and skills”

• INCREMENTAL ABILITY BELIEF- motivation’s affect on achievement- loosely explains how one rationalizes success or failure

What are the practices you utilize to convince students that learning is important

ENGAGEMENT

8 STEPS TO INCREASE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

1- DON’T GIVE UP ON THE RELATIONSHIP EVEN WHEN THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE FAILS

2-NEVER ACCEPT FAILURE AS AN OUTCOME

3-CHALLENGE YOURSELF TO DISCOVER THE PERSON WHILE BUILDING THE STUDENT

4-BUILD CULTURAL RELEVANCE INTO THE INSTRUCTION AND CURRICULUM

5-ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR STRENGTHS WHILE ADDING CONTENT KNOWLEDGE

6-RECOGNIZE THAT LEARNING IS A VULNERABLE PROCESS

7-THE STUDENT’S INTEREST, CONCERNS, AND VOICE SHOULD HAVE A PLACE AND SPACE

8-BUILD CULTURE AND COMMUNITY

What is Engagement? (Boykin and Noguera, 2011)

Engagement is linked positively to favorable learning outcomes for minority students—particularly for students from vulnerable backgrounds (Borman & Overman, 2004; Tucker et al., 2002; Wenglinksy, 2004)

The three types of classroom-based engagement are (Fredericks,

Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004):•Behavioral;•Cognitive; and •Affective.

These three types of engagement represent the investment that students make in their schooling.

Behavioral Engagement

• BEHAVIORAL ENGAGEMENT conveys the presence of general “on-task behavior.” It entails the observable effort and persistence along with paying attention, asking pointed questions, participating in class discussions, and seeking help to accomplish the task at hand.

• Behavioral engagement is a physical investment in the learning process.

Cognitive Engagement

• COGNITIVE ENGAGEMENT connotes investment aimed at comprehending complex concepts and issues and acquiring difficult skills. It conveys deep (rather than surface level) processing of information whereby students gain critical or higher-order understanding of the subject matter and solve challenging problems.

• Cognitive engagement is an intellectual investment in the learning process.

Affective Engagement

• AFFECTIVE ENGAGEMENT connotes emotional reactions linked to task investment. The greater the student’s interest level, positive affect, positive attitude, positive value held, curiosity, and task absorption (and the less the anxiety, sadness, stress, and boredom), the greater the affective engagement.

• Affective engagement is an emotional investment in the learning process.

Activity

• Describe a time when you realized that a student’s failure was imminent?

• Why was this outcome unavoidable?

• Describe the steps that you took to prevent this outcome

What is the Opposite of Engagement?

The lack of engagement or “disengagement” can take make forms including what we may think of as self-handicapping behaviors or inclinations such as task-avoidance and procrastination (Turner et al., 2002).

The Dilemma of Student Engagement for Racial/Ethnic Minority Students…

How can we expect students to invest themselves in academic success if the route to it marginalizes and/or minimizes most of what they think is most important about themselves?

Confronting the Myths about Achievement

We Confront race directly because although it is increasingly less likely for educators or public officials to explain the persistence of disparities in academic outcomes on the basis of innate racial differences, certain social and cultural factors have been espoused as a cause in recent years and these explanations end up having a similar effect.

(Boykin and Noguera)

School conditions play a major role in shaping student’s academic outcomes

1. Instructional Staff Capacity

2. Curriculum and Instruction

3. School Organization

4. Intervention Services

5. External Community/Family

6. School Community/Culture

Confronting Myths about Achievement

Building Capacity for Student Engagement Policy Practices and Beliefs

What happens when vulnerable

populations enter systems with gaps?

Impact of Systems Gaps

How Does My School- Group Activity

• Demonstrate Academic Expectations?

3 examples

• Identify elements of the School Climate immediately experienced when entering my school?

3 examples

• Students would describe my school using which descriptive expressions?

3 examples

In My School

• Vulnerable groups of students are of the follow descriptors:

Race/Ethnicity_____ Gender_____ Grade____ SES_____

• Academically resilient students are

Race/Ethnicity_____ Gender_____ Grade____ SES _____

The Bi-directional Influence of Engagement on Teacher-Student Interactions

Strong student engagement is a predictable measure of high achievement.

When the teacher perceives an initial low level of engagement, they will either attempt to compensate in order to raise student’s engagement or they will magnify the low engagement.

(Skinner & Belmont, 1993; Sutherland and Oswald, 2005)

The Bi-directional Influence of Engagement on Teacher-Student Interactions

Student engagement is mediated in large measure by the student’s perception of teacher behaviors.

Students who are perceived as engaged receive more positive attention and higher quality instruction; students who are perceived as disengaged more often receive coercion and less consistent teacher interactions.

(Skinner & Belmont, 1993; Sutherland and Oswald, 2005)

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE

• Build the TSRQ• Communicate and Maintain High Expectation for All students• Build connections between how students use information

processing strengths in non-academic settings• Provide emotional support to high risk students• Utilize personally meaningful and culturally relevant content• Match needs with available resources: your level of engagement

is a resource. • Create opportunities to engage students in health habits of the

mind that extend beyond rote memorization and into critical thinking and higher order thinking

Closing the System Gaps

Closing the System Gaps (sample)

Monticello Action TemplateStudent Engagement &System Gap Identified(*sample Attendance)___________

Examination of Current Practices, Policies,And Beliefs

What are some of the organization practices that Elevate Student Engagement

Determination of Action Plan to close system Gaps

Evidence the System Gap is Closing

Behavioral

Cognitive

Affective

Domains for support services utilized to Close System Gaps

• Intervention Service: are provided to students who are having academic and/or behavior difficulties – e.g. AIS, counseling, RtI, PBIS, IST. (Is suspension or referral seen as an intervention itself? Are there consequences and supports) (What/How/Who)

• School Organization: How the school or district operates – e.g. scheduling, course offerings: when, where & how, teacher assignments, etc. (What/How/Who)

• Instructional Staff Capacity: The ability of the staff to effectively educate students of different cultural backgrounds, maintain high expectations. More importantly communicate high expectations so that students beliefs are raised. (What/How/Who)

• Curriculum and Instruction: The pedagogical content and how it is taught to students. Is there an intentional focus on diversity, inclusion, and acceptance. (What/How/Who)

• External Community/Family: The community that surrounds the school should be part of a school/community continuum. Which means engaging families and community. (What/How/Who)

Beliefs: the ideas held by school personnel about each of these domain

Practices: the activities in these domains (formal and informal)

Policies: the written guidelines that frame schools

AREAS of CONTINUOUS GROWTH

5 Essential Elements of Cultural Competence

(Cross, T., Bazron, B., Dennis, K., and Isaacs, M.1989) 

Developing Guardians of Equity To monitor the impact of these actions on student performance...

QUESTIONS

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CLOSING REMARKS

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DEBRIEFING