Raise Achievement by Boosting Engagement

How often do you ask your class questions that are met with…silence? Glazed looks? One or two hands up (the same students as always!)? This is a common frustration among educators, and post-pandemic, it seems that active classroom engagement is at an all-time low. We can blame passive student behavior on many factors, but more importantly, what can we do to change things? And why should we?

A 2019 Gallup study was conducted in 128 schools and included more than 110,000 students. Its conclusion:

student engagement has a significant positive relationship with student academic achievement in math, reading, and all subjects combined.

All too often, our students have learned how to be compliant, but not engaged, in the school environment. While this compliance yields quiet, orderly classrooms, it does not always reflect actual learning. Actual learning is messy, it’s difficult at times, and it’s done best in a classroom that offers students opportunities to do more than just listen, watch, read, and copy notes from the board. Students need to be actively engaged in the thinking and doing in the classroom. The key to increasing classroom engagement and, in turn, learning, lies in a few small adjustments that yield big results, and that is the focus of this Exchange issue.

You’ll notice that an engaged classroom focuses on student behaviors. Many teachers are led to believe that their role is that of a “performer” in front of the class. In fact, it is students who should take the lead role in the learning and activity that takes place in the classroom. Students, not teachers, should be doing the heavy lifting and, by doing so, learning is deeper, more meaningful, and longer lasting.

Not sure where to start? See our Instead of This … Try This! guide with lots of ideas on how to engage students and improve learning. A sample is below.

Instead of This … Try This!

Strategies for Increasing Student Engagement

Instead of …

Try this!

Starting class with a question to the whole group, such as “Who can tell me what we learned yesterday?”

Assign a Type One writing:

• In 5 lines or more, write down as many things as you can remember from yesterday’s lesson.

OR

Assign a Type Two writing that reviews a specific topic:

• Yesterday we discussed _____ (e.g., the reasons why the Treaty of Versailles eventually led to WW2). Identify at least 3 of the _____ (e.g., reasons) we discussed.

THEN

Have students draw a line below their responses and share their answers with a partner, small group, or the whole class, adding new ideas below the line.

Read the Collins Writing Exchange from March 2023 for more ideas.