Wittrock-Engagement-1
Necolena Wittrock
Student Engagement in Math
City University of Seattle
Student Engagement
What is student engagement? Student engagement is when students are given “work that enables them to demonstrate and improve their awareness as competent and successful human beings” (Hall, 2015, p. 37). Teachers can learn and use strategies in their classrooms that will encourage students to be engaged in their learning. It is important to engage students and ensure that "all students have meaningful access to the content of lessons through active-engagement learning activities" (Feldman & Denti, 2004, p. 3). Furthermore, according to Wood & Turner-Vorbeck, “classroom discussion based on students’ own ideas and solutions to problems is essential to learning” (as cited by Van De Walle, Karp, Bay-Williams, 2016, p. 27).
Strategies for Student engagement
There are many strategies teachers can use to engage students in lessons. “Rather than showing students how to do something, your role is to ask probing questions that keep students engaged in the productive struggle until they reach a solution” (Van De Walle et al., 2016, p.29). A strategy that is used to engage students in math is to connect real-life and mathematics. According to Attard (2012), “The incorporation of tasks that mirrored life-like situations appears to have been a strong factor in engaging students in mathematics tasks, as were the tasks that required the students to
As a math teacher, I answer the following question at least once a week: “Am I going to use this in my life?” The first thing that comes to my mind is: “You will use math to pay your taxes, take your car to a mechanic, compare the number of hours worked and your paycheck”, among others. “When a topic connects to what students like to do, engagement deepens as they willingly spend time thinking, dialoguing, and creating ideas in meaningful ways. Making learning contextual to real-world experiences is a key learning technique with differentiating for student interests.” (McCarthy, 2014). Knowing the interests of my students is essential for them in order to master the material being covered in class. In addition, this gives me the opportunity to create a differentiating classroom. A few months ago I talked with the administration in my school and I let them know that my desire is that students have the opportunity to go to college or university to complete a degree,
This type of activity could potentially enhance a students understanding of mathematics because of the numerous forms of one idea. Not only will they experience hands on learning, they listen to the story, practice an activity, and then are able to create their own story. They also are able to experience it in a way that provides them positive reinforcement. We know that everyone learns a little bit differently, allowing many different forms of teaching the chances of students who all learn a bit differently to all have the chance to fully understand the
Another way to build student motivation and engagement is to give them real world problems to solve. By doing this, natural conflict arises, and students have to work together in order to resolve the conflict and continue developing a solution to the problem. When this happens, students learn so much about the problem they are trying to solve, but they also learn skills that will help them become successful in life.
It's more fun to teach engaged students and teachers always look for strategies and activities that will make students eager to learn more. But at the same time as teachers our instinct is toward greater control and students have only two reactions to control: Azzam (2014) interviewed well-known author Daniel Pink, Who claims that kids either comply or defy their teachers. We don't want students defy nor compliance. We want kids to be engaged.
Engaging students in the classroom can be a difficult task. Understanding the process of how students learn can help a teacher adapt the lesson to meet the needs of all students. I will encounter students that are not intrinsically motivated so I will need to find different ways to motivate each and every student. Understanding how my students learn can provide me with insights as to how to help each student learn which will minimize classroom management problems.
Artifact: The artifact is to execute a mathematics learning plan for fourth graders that facilitates and encourages both individual and group motivation whilst encouraging social interaction while both levels of motivation are being fostered. As suggested by the assignment and principle, heavy use will be made of technology as it is proven that technology can be used to facilitate and speed the learning process as well as interactions among the group.
Engaged learning, within a highly supportive environment, enables our students to develop strong communication skills, excel within collaborative settings, effectively address complex problems with innovative solutions, and lead with integrity and compassion throughout their lives and careers in a diverse and rapidly changing world.
The primary goal of the lesson sequence was to actively engage students through fostering problem solving skills and develop conceptual understanding about mathematics. Consequently a range of authentic learning experiences that aimed to actively engage learners through the use of real life contexts, concrete materials and peer collaboration was incorporated in the lessons. The purpose of designing authentic learning experiences was to enthral students in true mathematical problem solving. Fisher, (2005) supports this theory by stating ‘The true use of maths is seen in its application to real-life problems. The activities throughout the lesson plan were intended to support students in actively constructing knowledge by completely immersing students in relevant and authentic learning experiences to become an expert on the content.
This article described the how a group of educators came together to introduce problem solving to third-grade students throughout the year as a means to teach other concepts instead of just teaching this concept when it was reached in the textbook. The educators were in groups of three with a mathematical consultant. During the course of this project the educators met with the mathematical consultant every four weeks to discuss how students responses and their presentations. During these meeting the educators would often make adjustment to better fit the students. The article contained subsections about the special spark, the before, during, and after of the problem
During this assignment I’ll conduct a philosophy of classroom engagement and management in different categories.
What is the most effective way to teach? Can students really learn and fully understand the material teachers convey to them on a day to day basis? According to a middle school mathematics teacher, his methods of teaching the traditional way was not as effective and producing a long-term impact as he would have liked. The article "Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say!" enriches us to the possibility of applying slight gradual modifications to our teaching methods and how we could find ways to utilize that information in the search for more effective teaching methods to encourage students to explain their thinking and become more deeply involved in the classroom discussions, thus developing their questioning skills (Reinhart, 2000). After
Through this course, I have acquired the knowledge of various traits and characteristics that when properly utilized will advance me greatly in all aspects of my life. The one subject that has been discussed that really struck home with me was the difference between involvement and engagement. I always assumed that these particular words were synonyms of one and another. However, that is simply not the case. Engagement leads to the most satisfaction of an individual, whereas involvement leads to the most retention for the individual. Looking back, the activities I enjoyed the most as a youth all had these traits apart of them. The more I was engaged the more happiness and excitement I got as myself and the team progressed towards our
Active engagement occurs in the classroom when a teacher makes the connection between teaching and learning through pedagogy. The choice of pedagogy must see fit with the content of the lesson which in return will assist the teacher in constructing a more meaningful and supportive learning environment where students’ are more willing to participate and be actively engaged. The most important skill in pedagogies is relating the learning experience to real world situations in which students’ can relate too (Churchill et al., 2011).
There are many strategies and techniques that could be used in the classroom to encourage curiosity in math, but the four I chose to discuss I thought would be the most beneficial. This is due to the way they support auditory, visual, and kinesthetic styles of learning. The four strategies teachers could use to encourage curiosity towards mathematics in a classroom include co-operative learning, guided or discovery learning, simulate real life experiences, and active student learning. These four learning strategies range from group learning to the use of manipulatives to real life experiences and group discussions where students can share their ideas and thinking processes. Therefore, students would be able to learn in a variety of formats
Keeping students engaged and on task can be, at times, the most difficult part of being a teacher. You have to come up with new ways to engage them and keep them focused on learning, especially at the end of the day when all they can think about is going home.