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How Do We Know When Students Are Engaged?

BY BEN JOHNSON 3/ 1/ 12

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Ben Johnson served as an administrator in large and small schools, and at a charter school. He was the assistant superintendent of the Natalia Independent School District where he helped bring about major improvements in student learning.

Educational author and former teacher, Dr. Michael Schmoker shares in his book, Results Now, a study that found of 1,500 classrooms visited, 85 percent of them had engaged less

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than 50 percent of the students. In other words, only 15 percent of the classrooms had more

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than half of the class at least paying attention to the lesson.

About Blogs and the Contributors Contributors:

So, how do they know if a student is engaged? What do "engaged" students look like? In my many observations, here's some evidence to look for:

Teacher-Directed Learning A SPECIAL BLOG SERIES ON STUDENT ENGAGEMENT PRESENTED BY

You will see students...

Paying attention (alert, tracking with

Elena Aguilar Transformational leadership coach in Oakland, CA Rebecca Alber Edutopia consulting online editor and teaches online education at Stanford

their eyes)

Student Engagement Topics March 1: How to Tell if Your Students Are Engaged by Ben Johnson

Taking notes (particularly Cornell) Listening (as opposed to chatting, or sleeping) Asking questions (content related, or

March 15: Using Project-Based Learning to Engage Students by Suzie Boss March 29: Creativity and Student Engagement

by Elena Aguilar

in a game, like 21 questions or I-

April 26: Snapshots of Student Engagement by Heather Wolpert-Gawron

Eric Brunsell STEM educator

Spy) Responding to questions (whole group, small group, four corners, Socratic Seminar)

April 12: Engaging Students with Social and Emotional Learning by Maurice Elias

Suzie Boss Writer about sustainability and project learning

Lisa Dabbs Ed consultant and Edutopia New Teacher Group facilitator

Following requests (participating, Total Physical Response (TPR), storytelling, Simon Says) Reacting (laughing, crying, shouting,

Maurice Elias Director of the Social-Emotional Learning Lab at Rutgers

etc.)

Todd Finley Associate Professor of English Education at East Carolina University

Student-Directed Learning You see students individually or in small groups...

Mary Beth Hertz Elementary school computer teacher

Reading critically (with pen in hand) Writing to learn, creating, planning, problem solving, discussing, debating, and asking

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-engagement-definition-ben-johnson[3/6/2012 9:24:43 AM]

Ben Johnson An education consultant, master teacher,

How Do We Know When Students Are Engaged? | Edutopia

questions)

and trainer

Performing/presenting, inquiring, exploring, explaining, evaluating, and experimenting) Interacting with other students, gesturing and moving

Bob Lenz Founder of Envision Schools and four urban charter high schools

To boil the descriptions above down and get at the essence of student engagement, whether for teacher-directed learning or student-directed learning, engaged means students are active. Is that surprising? I shouldn't think so. If true learning is to occur, then students have

Andrew Marcinek High school technology integration specialist

to be at the very least participants in the process, and not merely products.

Activity and Ownership Andrew Miller Ed consultant and online educator

I believe that the majority of teachers pick up on the audience cues as they direct-teach and can tell if a student is not interested or not engaged. Most teachers act on what they see and adjust their instruction to try to engage all of their students. However, no matter how

Danielle Moss Lee President, CEO of Harlem Educational Activities Fund

hard teachers work at making it interesting, a lecture is still a lecture, and having students simply listen is still a passive action. The solution is simple: If a teacher wants to increase student engagement, then the teacher needs to increase student activity -- ask the students to do something with the knowledge and skills they have learned. Break up the lecture with

Anne O'Brien Deputy director of the Learning First Alliance

learning activities. Let them practice. Get them moving. Get them talking. Make it so engaging that it will be difficult for students not to participate.

The ultimate engagement is to put the learner in charge of learning. Create a rich learning

Mark Phillips Columnist and professor emeritus of secondary ed at San Francisco State

environment and a motivation to learn, and the students do all the hard work of learning, while the teacher merely facilitates. It sounds so easy.

Nicholas Provenzano English teacher and tech curriculum specialist

I do not minimize the hard work involved in creating those rich learning scenarios, custommade motivators and engaging learning content. And it is a bit risky. Sometimes it works like a charm, and other times it would have been better to assign seat work. But we keep trying, improving, and enhancing until we get it right.

Betty Ray Edutopia community manager

How have you found success in engaging your students?

Judy Willis Neurologist, former teacher, author, and lecturer Heather Wolpert-Gawron Teacher at a middle school in San Gabriel, CA

If you like this, you might also like How to Check for Deeper Understanding and Engage All Students by Ben Johnson Student-Centered Learning Environments: How and Why by Paul Bogdan Student Engagement: Resource Roundup by Edutopia Staff

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Comments (15)

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Vicki Gardner

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Posted on 3/5/2012 7:32am

Librarian, NBCT In another school district we used the model "Working on the Work" by Schlechty and we had various methods of assessing the students level of engagement when they left class. Often kids seem engaged and we think they are, however the activity may not be as engaging as we think it is. Students can describe their level of engagement: Engaged – High attention and high commitment Strategic Compliance – High attention but low commitment

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-engagement-definition-ben-johnson[3/6/2012 9:24:43 AM]

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How Do We Know When Students Are Engaged? | Edutopia Ritual Compliance – Low attention and low commitment Retreatist – No attention and no commitment Rebellion – Diverted attention Some teachers had 5 jars (or cups,bottles) and a bowl of candy kids could eat an M&M (or gum drop) and then on their way out, drop one in the jar that represented how they felt about the work that day and their level of engagement. Several teachers used this as a form of exit card and the kids are usually quite honest about how the activity engaged them.

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Just a thought regarding assessing levels of engagement.

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christina frederick Special Education Teacher in Central Illinois

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Posted on 3/5/2012 6:46am

Kids engaged in my class...

I teach special education and my role has shifted to co-teaching more than teaching myself. I teach two selfcontained classes. As soon as the kids enter my room in 5th hour, I hear "what are we doing today!" They are always every excited. Right now we are reading the novel The Hunger Games. I made a timeline for them that included the dates for which I wanted each chapter read. Each student read ahead. The book was schedule to be done in two weeks but they have all already completed it. That's how I can tell they are engaged.

christina frederick

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Special Education Teacher in Central Illinois Posted on 3/5/2012 6:23am

I have done exit slips, where I have done exit slips, where students comment on what they learned so that my co-teacher and I know if they learned the concepts that we were asking, but I have to say that I have never heard of asking the students if the lesson was easy/hard to pay attention? To be honest, it shows kids that we realize not everything is great but we really do want to get better. I can think of teachers whom I had through the years whose classes were quite boring. I always thought that they didn't care. If they had us fill this out, I would have felt that they were serious about teaching. This is a great idea and something that can be added to our exit slips. Thanks for sharing! I am going to research the Schlechty Center for Leadership in School Reform, too!

Mary L Carroll Latin teacher in Southeastern Virginia

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Posted on 3/3/2012 5:58pm

Engagement or Merely On-Task Behavior?

I have had some intensive training through the Schlechty Center for Leadership in School Reform. A teacher or administrator can guess a student's level of engagement, but the only way to truly know if a student is engaged is to ask the student. The activities Ben Johnson describes may be signs of engagement or they may not. They are observable on-task behavior. This is not the same as true engagement.

As part of the Schlechty Center training, I have gotten in the habit of asking for students' feedback about

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-engagement-definition-ben-johnson[3/6/2012 9:24:43 AM]

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How Do We Know When Students Are Engaged? | Edutopia lessons in the form of an engagement meter. The meter asks students how easy it was to pay attention to the lesson and how much they've learned from it.

I have had lessons that I thought went quite well from the amount of on-task behavior and from the grades that resulted from students' activity. But the engagement-meter showed students' perceptions were that the lesson was a waste of time. I have adjusted my lessons accordingly.

I am a proponent of active student learning and of hands-on and "minds-on" learning, as Phil Schlecty puts it.

But let's remember to avoid assumptions regarding engagement on the students' part.

Sam Cunnane Visual Arts teacher

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Posted on 3/3/2012 12:35pm

Curriculum Integration Project At Fraser High School, in Hamilton NZ, we're trying a subject integration approach to increase our student engagement. Students work on an authentic project (producing a visual culture magazine) where its up to them to write and produce everything themselves, with the teachers (three of us involved) facilitating the process. Your comments about these kinds of approaches being risky, sometimes working like a charm and somtimes seeming like seat work would have been better (or safer at least!) rings true. I blogged aobut this just yesterday! http://curriculumintegrationproject.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/structure-int...

David Coffey

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Joint Appointment at GVSU between Math Dept and College of Ed Posted on 3/3/2012 8:08am

Dr. Cambourne and What is TED Ben, Thank you for your reply.

You might be interested in Dr. Cambourne's webinar this Sunday (3/4) at 7pm ET: http://globalconversationsinliteracy.wordpress.com/ As for "What is TED?" - I blogged about it, too: http://deltascape.blogspot.com/2011/09/whats-ted.html Enjoy, Dave

Ben Johnson Change agent and school improvement expert

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Posted on 3/2/2012 8:49am

Immersion David: Dr. Cambourne seems to know what he is talking about. As a former Spanish teacher, immersion had a special meaning for me. I viewed my job as creating a learning environment in which students would find it difficult not to learn. My greatest tool was immersion. First of all I spoke the language to the students, in

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-engagement-definition-ben-johnson[3/6/2012 9:24:43 AM]

How Do We Know When Students Are Engaged? | Edutopia addition to gestures, writing and visual cues to meaning (comprehensible input). Second, the learning space inspired curiosity about Spanish speaking countries, different cultures and customs (the walls were covered in travel posters from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, etc...). Third, learning was participatory- Students were invited to speak, dance, sing, cook, eat, smell, draw, sew, act, present, and teach...all in Spanish.

It was nice to see immersion at the top of Dr. Cambourne's list.

Thanks for sharing.

What is TED? Ben Johnson San Antonio, Texas

Ben Johnson Change agent and school improvement expert

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Posted on 3/2/2012 8:22am

Measure Learning by the Decible Jody: This is a great topic. I am so frustrated with teachers clamping down on students for making noise in the classroom. We want them making noise, the more noise the better as long as it is about learning. Yes, there are times to be quiet, but learning is a loud, messy business when students are excited, enthusiastic and engaged. Way to go!

Ben Johnson San Antonio, Texas

Ben Johnson Change agent and school improvement expert

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Posted on 3/2/2012 8:18am

Being Intrigued Sue: I found that when I was "intrigued" about something, that "intrigue" tended to rub off on my students. First they wanted to know why I was so interested, and when they found out, they were also interested. There is a lesson here. If you as the teacher are not interested in something, guaranteed the students won't be. If you think something is cool, most likely your students in general will too (my students never got into my jokes though- I suppose they matured beyond my version of fifth grade humor).

Thanks for sharing your great ideas.

Ben Johnson San Antonio, Texas

Ben Johnson Change agent and school improvement expert

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Posted on 3/2/2012 8:12am

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How Do We Know When Students Are Engaged? | Edutopia

Leave them wanting More Don: When students forget there is a clock in the room and are actively working there is an electricity in the air. It is exuberating. You mentioned they were writing-- what was the project/topic that made them so interested?

Ben Johnson San Antonio, TX

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