Week 9: Digital- Engagment and Agency

Reflection: How do you measure what you value? Do technologies present new opportunities for drawing out and leveraging student agency? How did you plan to assess your Digital 1 plan. Could the student assessment/agency aspect of that plan be ones to criticise on? 

I believe that a learner's engagement in relation to their learning comes down to the teacher knowing their students and how they learn. By doing this, flexibility in relation to how they learn can be provided, because as we know, no two students learn in the same manner. Children need the scaffolding of how to take ownership and responsibility for their own learning. In the classroom that I teach, every child as their own iPad. However, not all children choose to complete activities on iPads, depending on the task. We need to be allowing the flexibility in our classrooms for children to learn in different manners that are suitable to them. 


Engagement: 
Engagement is the thoroughfare into a meaningful education. So, how do we define, measure and acknowledge how it is successful? This week we explored some research around this. 

How is engagement defined? 

"The level of attention, curiosity, interest and passion that children communicate when they are learning, being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in relation to education". 

How are levels of engagement defined? There are five levels of student engagement. 

• Authentic Engagement: engaged in learning that is relevant to them
• Ritual Compliance: no immediate meaning for students, but there is an outcome and therefore some sort of engagement, whether it be university etc. 
• Passive Compliance: students don't see any meaning, but they try and put some effort in to avoid detentions or staying in to do work etc. 
• Retreatism: students are disengaged and don't make any effort to learn, but they don't disrupt other learners. 
• Rebellion: learners don't do the task, disrupt others, 

Here is the link for where this information was sourced

How is engagement measured?

The engaged classroom: All children are engaged in their learning. You don't see a lot of the passive compliance and retreatism and there is no rebellion concepts. 
The Compliant Classroom: The traditional type of classroom and most children are seen as working. So, if you were to walk past you would infer that children are working. Retreatism is a danger and little rebellion concepts. 
The Off-Task Classroom: You can clearly see aspects of the retreatism and rebellion concepts in an off-task classroom. Children are viewed as learners of their own manner. As a teacher, you would be more likely to be focusing your time based around behavioral issues rather than teaching and learning. 

Seven ways to increase student engagement (as sourced from website above):