What are the secrets to student engagement? The secrets are rooted in neuroscience. How the brain works, why we get curious and why we procrastinate all play a roll in how and why some students are engaged in learning and others are not.
I will provide practical tips for teachers to ignite curiosity, reduce overwhelm, and motivate students through rewards and choices, ultimately enhancing classroom engagement.
Curiousity motivates learning and increases engagement.
Curiosity is a powerful intrinsic motivator for students. Neuroscientists shared that the human mind will investigate in a curious manner things that are already of interest. Which makes sense as a long time strategy for increasing reading scores was to find books kids were interested in.
The human mind will also work and be curious when there is a problem to solve. These problems don’t have to be life threatening but can be as simple as solving a puzzle. Most students will enjoy a puzzle and engage with a non-academic task in a classroom longer than what be perceived as school work. We have to tap into this desire to know and understand.
Procrastination the steel door shutting out engagement
Procrastination can arise from boredom, fear, and overwhelm. Your students have all the time in the world and very creative minds able to shut out even the most interesting and important lessons. If you know the exact reason, you can blow torch that door open.
Reason one: Boredom. Our brains will avoid doing tasks that are mind numbing. It is nature to head for a dopamine hit rather then trudge down the muddy hill of, this again.
Increasing interest in your lessons and topics isn’t too terribly hard but, you may have to look outside the text book. In my 6 step lesson launch, I talk about the engaging hook. Ask the students a question that has no right or wrong answer will drop them into a conversation with interest. They have an investment in the outcome as they too had in idea.
Reason two: Fear. Our brain in programmed to protect us. Fear, whether real or imagined will cause us to avoid. If we are not sure water is safe, our subconscious will just point our attention to something else. Students are like this if they are not sure they know what to do OR, they are not sure they will do a task well. Easing into a lesson where students know what to do and you have shown them the tools to use to do it will greating reduce fear.
Creating a classroom where learning is valued over being first and being right will also help squash the fear in students that might not be as fast and impulsive.
Reason three: Overwhelm. Students can feel anxiety if something seems like it is too much to handle. If they get anxious they won’t do it well or be able to finish, children will just not start.
For this reason, I love task cards. A lot of my day is spent in small group intervention and task cards have lowered anxiety for my students. After modeling getting one question from a teacher is not going to race the heart the way a whole worksheet will.
Reason four: Choice. Three is a personality that is just not happy or comfortable with taking direction from others. When this trait is overwhelming in many facets of daily life, a student might get a diagnosis of Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). In short, this is a child that has a strong preference to do the things they think of. To guide students with a preference to self-direct we can set up the situations to offer choices.
If you imagine a two-year old at dinner. If you just ask what they want, the choice might not be healthy but, if you offer some choices like a menu, they will choose what they prefer and everyone is happy. This is the exact way I have handled ODD students in the past.
Feedback and Rewards for students
To counter all the scarys (fear & overwhelm) you must let students know they are on the right track. Acknowledge they are doing the right thing. Praise them for getting started, using their tools and on and on. And if they are on the wrong track let them know that too. Nothing shuts a student down for as long as doing an entire (anything) only to find out it is wrong.
Reward students for engagement. I don’t say this to annoy you but many teachers feel it is the student’s JOB to do the work the teacher assigns. Well, sure but if they don’t care about grades, parents are not interested in their school and it isn’t their favorite thing, why would they do anything you ask. After all, I love my job, I think I am good at it and generally have friends that encourage me but . . . if they stopped paying me. I problably would stop showing up. Rewards can be the pay check the student needs to do the hard work of learning.
Games? What kind and who has time?
I prefer old school thinking games like, Othello or Set. But any game can work to increase a students engagement in being part of the class. It can increase their stamina to focus, build relationships and give them something to be good at. When you begin to reward engagement with game time you and your students will be happier.
Where do you get the time? You take back the time students waste when they are not engaged. Be the teacher that is at the door when the bell rings. Be the class that works until dismissal. Be the class where the lessons are so engaging, kids don’t take 15 minute bathroom breaks.
So engagement is the first ingredient to a learning rich classroom. Consider what natural tendencies are working against you and pivot to ignite the curiousity in students. Hook them into the wonder of what this word is and their role in it.
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In this coming Spring we will be diving into bell-ringers as they are not created equally, questions to ignite discourse to support language and thinking acheivement and why I think numberlines are not used enough in math and social science.
