How Much Do You Know About Strategies for Student Engagement?

What are three key drivers of student engagement?

• Ownership

• Responsibility

• Connectivity

• Personal Interest

Answer explanation

The three key drivers of student engagement are Ownership, Responsibility, and Personal Interest. Ownership implies students taking control of their own learning. Responsibility suggests students taking accountability for their learning results. Personal Interest indicates the role of students' passions and interests in driving their engagement in learning.

​ (a)   of students said they would feel more motivated if they could do assignments on topics that interest them if they were relevant to what is being taught in class.

• 48%
• 16%
• 25%
• 29%
• 37%

Answer explanation

Twenty-nine percent of students stated they would feel more motivated if they could do assignments on topics that interest them if they are relevant to what is being learned in class. This falls a little behind the opportunity

to redo an assignment if they receive a low grade which received 35 percent of students surveyed.

​ ​ (a)   is the instructional strategy where students identify how what they are learning can be relevant to their own lives and goals.

• Self-generation
• Recitation
• Information Transmission
• Direct Instruction

Answer explanation

Self-generation can appear as an assignment that directly asks a student to connect a specific lesson to their own lives or choose any piece of school content and describe

how it is relevant to them.

According to an EdWeek Research Center survey, ​ (a)   of educators believed hands-on opportunities is the most effective strategy for boosting student motivation.

• 54%
• 35%
• 47%

Answer explanation

When asked for the most effective strategies for jump starting students’ motivation, more than half of educators—54 percent—cited hands-on opportunities, including internships, according to a survey of 1,058 teachers, principals, and district leaders conducted in late January and early February by the EdWeek Research Center, making it the most popular answer. The second most popular response, chosen by 45 percent of educators? Showing students how they can use what they learn in future careers.

Students may be even bigger believers in career exploration as an engagement tool than their teachers and school leaders. An overwhelming majority—87 percent—of students said that they feel more motivated in class when they see a direct connection between what they are learning and the skills they would use in a job or career, according to a separate EdWeek Research Center survey of 1,011 teenagers in late December and early January.

Which of the following is NOT an example of how to improve

student engagement?

• Listening to student voices and feedback

• Building teacher-student relationships

• Establishing a fixed curriculum

• Small, informal gestures to convey support or encouragement

Answer explanation

When teachers or educational institutions enforce a rigid curriculum without considering the students' interests, needs, or feedback, it can lead to disengagement. Students may fi nd it difficult to connect with the material and may become disinterested in their learning because it does not resonate with their preferences or aspirations.

Conversely, when educators listen to student feedback and make even small gestures such as using sticky notes to convey support and encouragement, they can enhance the teacher-student relationship and have a meaningful impact on student engagement.

​ (a)   of middle and high school students state that they are currently motivated to do their best work whereas ​ (b)   of teachers said their students were motivated to work hard.

• 86%
• 67%
• 65%
• 35%
• 79%
• 44%
• 92%
• 75%

Answer explanation

If you thought being enthusiastic and personable were the best ways to motivate teenagers to work hard in school, then think again. It turns out what many teens say will motivate them the most is the opportunity to redo assignments if they get a low grade.

It’s not the most exciting solution, but there you have it.

Out of more than 20 options given to a nationally representative sample of 1,011 students, ages 13-19, the chance to redo assignments was the most selected, with 35 percent saying that is what would motivate them the most to do well in school. These are among the findings of surveys of teenagers and educators conducted by the EdWeek Research Center on student motivation and engagement.

Fun may undermine student motivation and student learning.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

This is true. E. Tory Higgins and Emily Nakkawita of Columbia University argue that adding ‘fun’ to an assignment or activity is difficult as it depends on what is found as enjoyable to some.

They found that peoples’ persistence in continuing tasks was more closely connected to how well they fit what they considered the goals of the tasks themselves. Participants dedicated more time both to tasks framed and presented as important and those framed and presented as enjoyable. By contrast, they were less persistent when researchers added more enjoyable elements to tasks presented as important.