Student Engagement in the Classroom: The best methods to maintain & improve it

If you’re a teacher, the chances are that you’re always looking for new ways to maintain pupil engagement in your lessons, and improve it where there is room to do so. Research has shown that, unsurprisingly, the more time pupils spend engaged during instruction, the more they learn. A strong predictor of overall student achievement is the amount of time students are actively engaged in learning.

To implement engagement strategies, we must take into account the ability and age group of pupils, as well as their current levels of engagement.

What is pupil engagement?

Pupil engagement is how we measure the depth at which a pupil is interacting with the material of a lesson, and the level to which they are committed to the activity at hand. The Schlecty Center for Leadership in School Reform is an American organisation which has highlighted five levels of pupil engagement, with 1 being the most engaged, and 5 being the least engaged. They describe the 5 levels of engagement as follows:

1. Authentic Engagement (High Attention-High Commitment), which is the highest level of student engagement. In this level, the students see that the activity is personally meaningful, and have the will to persist and learn in the face of difficulty. Likewise, the students feel that their goal is to get the activity right and perform well;
2. Strategic Compliance (High Attention-Low Commitment) where students in this level still see the value of the work and find the activity as worth doing but only because of marks, grades, approval and class rank. If the work does not guarantee them with these extrinsic returns, they will abandon it. Students are also primarily after teacher recognition and peer appreciation;
3. Ritual Compliance (Low Attention-No Commitment) is the level where students set learning at a low level and are working only for the sake of compliance and on meeting the minimum requirements. They do the work only to avoid negative consequences such as getting a failing grade or mark. Their prime desire is to avoid teachers’ reprimand and peer conflict;
4. Retreatism (No Attention-No Commitment) – students are disengaged in the classroom task and activity and are emotionally withdrawn. They do not participate in the task, and feel unable to do what is asked and expected of them. Moreover, the students think they cannot do the activity because of deficient capability and lack of sense of activity relevance; and
5. Rebellion (Diverted Attention-No Commitment) – the students refuse to do the work, do actions to disrupt others. For this level, students develop a negative attitude and poor work, and sometimes encourage others to rebel.

How to assess the engagement of your pupils

One of the best ways to assess student engagement is with a mid-term evaluation or informal discussion. By listening to your pupils, and addressing problems as early as possible, you get a rounded idea of where your teaching could improve, as well as involving your pupils in the process. (More on increasing pupils’ sense of autonomy later.)

Use your survey to find out what pupils do and don’t like about your course, and try to address it. For example, if pupils report that they feel more “switched off” when learning from a textbook, but enjoy practical lessons or discussions, find a way to provide more collaborative lessons as opposed to authoritative ones.

Engagement Strategies

The 10:2 Method

For every 10 minutes of instruction or textbook learning, allow the pupils to have 2 minutes to respond to the material. For students who are already engaged with the material, the responding time can be spent writing about what they have learned, or for those who need a little more encouragement or are of a lower ability, the two minutes can be a quick discussion with the class or a partner.

Incorporate movement into your lessons

This works particularly well for pupils who are at the bottom end of the engagement spectrum. By having pupils get up and come to the front of the classroom to read aloud, take part in a practical demonstration, or writing on the board themselves, teachers can take control of the disruption in the classroom and get all pupils engaged with the material.

Give pupils more autonomy

By letting your pupils take control of the discussion or demonstration, or by asking them their opinions, pupils feel a greater sense of ownership of the classroom and will take more pride in their learning. Depending on the age of your pupils, you can give more autonomy by allowing them to create classroom displays, work with you to create rules for your classroom, or even direct the lesson themselves. (This is also a great way to improve your behaviour management too.)

Make Learning Fun

Whatever methods work for you and your pupils, remember that pupil engagement is more than just listening. Engaged classrooms can sometimes be the loudest! When everyone is interacting with the lessons, it is more likely that the information will be retained by your pupils.

According to a report from Ofsted, the factors which are most successful in helping students to enjoy learning include:

• A commitment from all staff to meeting students’ needs
• Effective monitoring systems to identify at-risk and disengaged students
• Close collaboration between primary and secondary schools to prevent disengagement at transition
• The involvement of a wide variety of adults within the school and community to support students
• Regular and effective communication with parents and carers, including involving them closely in determining the strategies to be used to support their children
• Modifying the curriculum and drawing on educational providers beyond the school
• Close working relationships with local agencies responsible for supporting children and young people

Moving on up

If you’ve mastered the steps above, here are two things you can do to take your teaching career to the next level: 

1. Register with Engage today to connect with your own personal Engage consultant, who will work tirelessly to find you your dream teaching job.
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