PUPIL ENGAGEMENT IN EDUCATION: A MEANS FOR INCREASED ACADEMIC ABILITY, WELL-BEING AND SOCIAL COMMITMENT
It is in relation to the disciplinary elements of the composition of the course that the pupils’ second role appears. The participation of the pupils will strengthen the disciplinary element of the course. When teachers, and pupils jointly, specify, and agree upon an array of objectives for working with pupil engagement, and when pupils convey these objectives with their classmates in their school, it establishes a strong, and different, sense of commitment for the pupils and the teachers, rather than the teachers and pupils formulating the objectives at the course, without including the rest of the pupils in the class. Pupils from the earliest classes in the school have been considered as participants for the course. The Ministry of Education have had a great deal of focus on the pupils in the final part of the public school education, which is related to the final exams of these pupils, it has been decided that pupils from 8th grade, and subsequently teachers from 8th grade, have been invited to participate in the course. It has held a particular importance for us that the content of the course for teachers and pupils is simple, and that the course presented an array of concrete methods and tools for, the way in which pupil engagement can be handled at the school. By making the content simple and concrete, we expect that the chance for implementing pupil engagement in the everyday school life is increased. Originating in the argument that pupil engagement, from a pedagogical perspective, can be considered a continuous feedback process, we have, thusly, established a folder containing an array of concrete feedback tools. An amount of these have been reviewed on the course itself, and others have been made available for teachers to study after the fact. It is the two teachers, alongside two of the volunteer pupils, who have conducted the teachings. The teachers have been responsible for the execution itself, and, among other things, secured the quality of the pedagogical arguments, all while the volunteer pupils have been a part of the course in order to contribute with a pupil’s perspective on the work with pupil engagement, and also to communicate on the level of the participating pupils. The specific timetables for each of the two course days, alongside examples of concrete feedback tools can be found in appendix 5 and 6.
6.3.4 Consultant visit for teachers The supplementary training course is the cornerstone for strengthening pupil engagement in the schools. Although our prioritization have been on utilizing simple, concrete, varied, easily implementable methods and tools, and although we expect an autonomous effect of the supplementary training on pupil engagement, we also expect
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