Student Success
Improving learner engagement in online learning:
Key behaviours for success in mathematics
The Covid-19 pandemic challenged the education system on an unmeasured scale. Around the world, learners lost a significant number of school days and many educators, to mitigate the fallout, were forced to adapt to online learning.
still reported low levels of engagement from learners and a lack of enthusiasm for the accessibility and flexibility that online learning offers.
The teaching of mathematics in particular, has traditionally relied heavily on face-toface interactions. Teachers use strategies such as problem solving, manipulatives and collaboration to teach the abstract concepts of mathematics. With online learning, many of these strategies had to be relooked and restructured for a virtual setting, so far with varying degrees of success.
Understanding low engagement during remote learning
Although the myriad issues involved with online teaching remain pertinent (from access to internet and online learning platforms, to whether all educators are able to teach skillfully with technology in a remote setting), my focus in this article is on learner behaviour that can lead to successfully managing the remote learning environment and learning mathematics online. I suggest that attention should shift to developing learners who are capable of self-regulation. For those schools that have had the infrastructure in place to begin using digital education tools immediately, there has seemed to be the expectation that online learning should happen quickly, easily and successfully. But some schools have
Before we can address learners’ poor engagement during remote learning, it’s important to know what these issues may be. The reasons, of course, are complex and manifold, and an explanation for one school may be different for another. The age of the learners must also be considered. Possible reasons for low engagement include: ● • That remote learning lacks the support that the typical classroom environment provides as far as the face-to-face interaction with a teacher is concerned (i.e. the encouragement it provides, along with the timely correction of misconceptions) • ●That online teaching can be boring and unengaging if the content is too theoretical; if instructional goals are not being made clear; or when there is no schedule and the flexibility of online learning becomes a drawback rather Teacha! Magazine | 19
