Literature Review
After completing my classroom observations and initial needs assessment, I began to research ways in which I could increase student engagement within the classroom. As I was sorting through the literature on student engagement and motivation, I learned that both student engagement has a vast amount of variations and factors that play a role within this constructs, thus I had to really focus on what I thought was most appropriate and relevant to the needs of my student and feasible enough to study and implement in my action research project.
Student engagement
Voelkl (1996) suggests one of the most important issues facing educators today is student engagement. Without engagement, students tend to not only withdraw emotionally and cognitively from the learning process, but also physically take themselves away from school setting altogether (Voelkl et al., 1996). Although student engagement is a growing interest, variations of this construct have been conceptualized over time. The term engagement has been used synonymously with words such as active, attentive, motivation, and effort (Marks, 200). In seeking to understand what is meant by “engagement” and in exploring the research although, one commonality I found is that engagement is multidimensional.
dimensions of engagement
Student engagement, as defined Fredricks (2004) is a meta-construct that includes behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement. According to Connell & Wellborn (1991), behavioral engagement draws on the ideas of participation and includes involvement in academic, social, or extracurricular activities considered crucial for achieving positive academic outcomes. Other scholars have defined behavioral engagement in terms of positive conduct, such as following the rules, adhering to classroom norms, and the absence of getting into trouble (Finn, Pannozzo, & Voelkl, 1995; Finn & Rock, 1997).
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Emotional engagement focuses on the extent of positive (and negative) reactions to teachers, classmates, academics, or school. It has also been conceptualized as identification with the school, which includes belonging, or a feeling of being important to the school, and valuing, or an appreciation of success in school-related outcomes (Finn, Pannozzo, & Voelkl et al., 1995). Finally, cognitive engagement is defined as student’s level of investment in learning. It includes being thoughtful, strategic, and willing to exert the necessary effort for comprehension of complex ideas or mastery of difficult skills (Fredricks et al., 2004). Thus, one can engage either positively or negatively along the behavioral, emotional, or cognitive dimensions. This is illustrated in Figure 3.
motivation
The self-system model of motivation development (Connell, 1990; Deci & Ryan, 1985) provides one theoretical model for studying motivation and engagement. This model is based on the assumption that individuals have three fundamental motivational needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. If schools provide children with these three needs, students will be more engaged. Fredericks et al., 2004 states that students’ need for relatedness is more likely to occur in classrooms where teachers and peers create a caring and supportive environment. He goes on to state their need for autonomy is met when they feel they have a choice and when they are motivated by internal rather than external factors. Finally, he says their need for competence is met when they experience the classroom as optimal in structure and feel like can achieve desired ends.
Furthermore, a growing body of research has begun to link classroom environments, student engagement, and academic achievement. Patrick (2007) examined the relationship between a classrooms social environment, engagement, and achievement among adolescents in 5th grade. Patrick et al., 2007 found that classroom social environment including student support and promotion of interaction was positively related to cognitive (self-regulated learning) and behavioral (classroom participation) engagement.
After understanding engagement as meta-construct of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement and how research has began to associate classroom environment, engagement, and academic achievement, I began to research effective ways to cultivate and increase these levels of engagement within my classroom.
After understanding engagement as meta-construct of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement and how research has began to associate classroom environment, engagement, and academic achievement, I began to research effective ways to cultivate and increase these levels of engagement within my classroom.
Student Choice
One factor that research shows could lead to an increase in student engagement and motivation is student choice. In studies by Bambara, Ager, and Koger (1994) individuals were required to engage in low or moderately preferred tasks. Both studies found that providing choices increased on-task behavior and decreased problem behavior for some the participants. Some examples of student choice can be but are not limited to the following: choice of task to complete, choice of materials, where work is completed, as well as students selecting peers in which they want to work with. Furthermore, in Kohn’s (1993) articles, “Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide”, Kohn emphasizes the importance of a democratic classroom and the need for teachers to share the decision making process with students. Most educators are reluctant in doing so and we often find ourselves thinking students would choose to do nothing or watch movies all day. As an educator, I believe and as Kohn suggests, we should give our students more credit and liberate ourselves from that fear. With Kohn’s captivating argument in offering students more choice, I became persuaded to facilitate this into my classroom.
Conclusion
I focused my literature review on seeking ways to increase engagement within the classroom and improving student academic achievement. The literature and definitions on student engagement are plentiful, however, for the purpose of this research project, I choose to focus my study in using Fredricks et al. (2004) comprehensive definition of engagement. His definition provides explanations incorporating the three dimensions of engagement: behavioral, cognitive, and emotional and goes on to state that each dimension shares overlapping concepts and should remain intersected in a profound way. Furthermore, the literature suggests that including preference and choice into the curriculum should increase students’ engagement, more especially, students’ on-task behaviors. Children who are provided with more interesting tasks should become more academically engaged. This in turn should lead to improved behavior, task completion, and more positive experiences throughout the school day (Romaniuk & Miltenberger, 2001). I used the information I found from previous literature and considered the ways in which providing student choice could ultimately lead to increase of student engagement and academic achievement. My goal was to introduce a project in the classroom in hopes of increasing student engagement, thus leading to academic achievement, while also providing student choice.
After reviewing the literature, I found it appropriate to add the following sub-questions to my research question:
After reviewing the literature, I found it appropriate to add the following sub-questions to my research question:
- How can incorporating student choice and inquiry into the classroom help increase student engagement?