What is Student Engagement?

“Student engagement” has come to refer to how involved or interested students appear to be in their learning and how connected they are to their classes, their institutions, and each other, as measured by such instruments as the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)" (Axelson and Flick, 2011, "Defining Student Engagement").

Please take time to review How to Make Your Teaching More Engaging by Sarah Rose Cavanagh. Cavanagh highlights four principles of engagement in this thought-provoking article and has written a book called The Spark of Learning, Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion. If you have time, take a look at a few of the additional resources listed to the right.

Building Relationships & Community with Students

In order to engage students in learning, it is important to develop a safe and trusting learning environment.

this image displays three hexagons that are adjacent to one another. Each hexagon has a title, building relationships, active learning experiences, and student engagement. this graphic represents the interconnectedness of these three ideas. When I first started teaching, my principal had us stand outside of our door as students walked in every morning and we'd get down on their eye level and shake hands, one by one as they filed in. It was important that we make a connection at the very beginning of class with eye contact, a warm smile, and a how are you this morning greeting. At first, I felt I was just going through the motions but after the first couple of weeks, it was one of my favorite parts of the day! This one-on-one connection became very important to me and my students. It was a simple ten seconds with each student but it built an amazing bond between my students and me. We took it a step further and we'd gather in a circle every morning and they would pass the handshake around to their classmates and they would give each other the same eye contact and how are you this morning greeting. Year after year, I saw tremendous community building and learning happening in my classroom.

Creating a Safe & Responsive Learning Environment

To truly build a learning community, we have to engage and interact with one another. I'm going to take you back to the Assessment section where we learned about constructivist theory. When students interact and actively participate, they learn. This means that the learning environment we create must not only be welcoming but it must foster learning through active participation.

Using the active learning strategies you learned about in the Assessment section will help you create a learning environment that fosters engagement. When students know that in your class they talk to each other, solve problems together, and construct learning together, great things will happen!