How do you know your students are engaged?
Well, guess what?
Just because they're filling in a worksheet or working quietly doesn't
in fact mean that they are engaged.
And I know that most of you will say that, well, you can't engage
all the kids at all the time.
And that's true.
And of course, we don't always know what kids are coming to school
with either, but it appears that we actually can get pretty close.
In his book, 2006, Dr. Michael Schmoker cited a Of looking at engagement in
1500 classrooms and this study found that only 15 percent of the classrooms
had more than half of the class at least paying attention to the lesson.
And actually, when I tell you about the latest study conducted by Lego
Education, you will see that results today are not too dissimilar.
But firstly, what does engagement look like?
Obviously, students will be paying attention, their eyes will be alert,
they'll be tracking, they'll be taking notes, especially if they're older.
They'll be listening actively, asking questions, responding to questions,
either individually or in small groups,
they'll be following requests, they'll be reacting, they'll be interacting with
their peers and in small groups, and they'll be debating and discussing and
explaining and inquiring and all these behaviours boil down to one word, active.
There are times when we as teachers have to talk and students have to listen.
And as any good teacher knows, when you are tuned into your students,
you can tell when they lose interest and then you adjust your
instruction and you bring them back.
But we all know very well that standing in front of a room just talking is
bound to result in students zoning out.
So what's the solution?
Well, it's getting learners actively involved.
And if you listen to Episode 44, I gave you many examples of the types
of activities that Trevor McKenzie in his new and latest book advocated
for getting our learners engaged in the material we're teaching them.
And all those routines that Trevor spoke about, get children involved actively.
So what we need to do is is keep our talking time short, break it up
with bursts of hands on activities that allow children to move, to be
active and to interact with others.
Let me share a little survey I did with some of the children I've been teaching
and I asked them the same question from children from grades three to
six and I got the exact same answers.
I asked them what their favorite way was to learn, how they enjoyed learning best.
And there was overwhelming consensus in each year group.
They liked it when the teacher spoke very little and then let them go off
and figure things out for themselves and apply what the teachers have taught.
And secondly, they liked working with others.
And that brings me to the latest report called The State of Classroom
Engagement from Lego Education.
Firstly, they too define engagement as a student's desire to know
more and to use their knowledge to apply it to real world situations.
Children are engaged when they're also really excited to
. to share what they've learned with others and in their research to find
out what engages, inspires and builds confidence in both students and
teachers, they surveyed more than 6, 000 administrators, teachers and students
aged from 5 to 14 and parents globally.
And they found four insights that affect student engagement and
disengagement and that both have an effect beyond the classroom.
Let's look at these four insights.
First one.
Collaboration is a powerful driver for engagement.
About one third of administrators, parents and teachers describe
students as being disengaged.
They found that low engagement went hand in hand with poor student
comprehension of the curriculum.
And this disengagement has a knock on effect in that student mindset
and confidence is adversely affected, and therefore they found high levels
of absenteeism and more behaviour issues and underperformance.
And guess what, when children were asked what they liked most about
school, about half of them said that they liked learning new things, but
the real reason they loved coming to school And that's very much in line
with my own little survey that I did.
Kids love coming to school to socialize and to have fun with friends.
And that means that if we as educators can use that power of student
connection and use collaborative, hands on learning strategies, we're more
likely to have greater engagement.
And that's exactly in line with what my kids said.
Practical takeaway one is this.
Or activities in your lesson plans where you can include some collaboration.
Allow your students to work in pairs or in small groups so they can
naturally learn from one another.
This is obviously the constructivist approach at work.
And remember, we don't just stick kids in small groups and then
we hope they learn something.
We need to model how to work in groups.
We need to give them guidelines.
We need to give them vocabulary and the scaffolds they need to be successful.
It's not a free for all.
We need to provide that outline and the materials and show them what successful
collaboration looks like and sounds like.
The second topic that came up was that if students are engaged
then academic outcomes improve and so does well being.
It's a no brainer that students who are engaged perform better and are happier.
The study found that teachers and parents both wanted to inspire
a lifelong love for learning.
They wanted kids to develop problem solving skills and
be self motivated to learn.
You can't imagine how happy this made me feel because this is exactly
what Blooming Curious is all about.
The study found that the most effective way to achieve these
attributes was through engagement.
It found that engaged students were happier, they had greater confidence.
When we think about how important it is for children to have good well being,
it seems that improving engagement will produce a ripple effect and cause
improved well being, better skills and better academic performance.
So my practical takeaway two is that when you're planning your curriculum, look for
ways to make the concept more engaging.
If you've been listening to Blooming Curious for a while, you'll know all
about provocations and questioning techniques, and I suggest you go
back to episode 44 just for starters.
The data also highlighted that children are more confident when they are engaged.
Making sure we build their confidence and resilience by encouraging risk taking and
in fact welcoming failure as just a way to learn so the children don't feel that
pressure to find one answer but rather problem solve to find several correct and
different ways to come to conclusions.
I love that growth mindset strategy of adding in that
word yet when kids fall short.
I don't know how to do that yet.
Yet.
I'm not good at math.
Yet.
The third insight from the study is a big one for us.
Would you believe that student engagement actually improves with teacher retention?
The study found that 80 percent of teachers said that they
would be happier in their jobs if children were more engaged.
It almost seems like a chicken and egg situation.
One of the greatest barriers here was that teachers felt that they
did not have adequate resources and materials to teach the vast range of
student abilities in their classes.
They also found that teachers needed more professional development.
In the US, they found that teachers only spend approximately seven hours a year
on PD, professional development, which is less than any other country.
And in addition, almost one third of educators said they did not
use their resources effectively.
It appears that I have said on this podcast before that educators need
ongoing support along with professional development, resources, and regular
instruction on how to use those resources to improve job satisfaction and retention.
If you follow me on social media, you would have seen that in the past week, I
spoke about a meme that I've seen where these teachers doing this little dance
and the caption said, that's how teachers feel after PD, knowing that they'll
never implement what they've learned.
And that's a bit sad, especially when we look at the study.
The more PD and support teachers get, the better engaged they'll
be, which means that they'll be better positioned to design
engaging lessons for their students.
And then there's that ongoing engagement and happiness cycle.
It's a bit like saying, if mama ain't happy, there ain't nobody happy.
And in this case, it's if teachers aren't happy, there ain't nobody happy.
So my practical takeaway number three is this, school administrators need
to invest in professional learning for teachers so that they can implement
innovative practices that inspire students to be engaged in their learning.
And we see from this data that administrators don't
always provide the support and development we need as educators.
And that's why I've always taken my professional
development into my own hands.
Whenever I've seen a workshop or a summit that appears interesting, then
I've asked for the training, because if you don't ask, you don't get.
And a few times when the school didn't have the budget,
I paid out of my own pocket.
Attending summits and workshops fuels me and I always leave with
lots of energy and enthusiasm.
And that keeps teaching interesting, not just for us, but for our students too.
And this is one of the reasons I've decided to create a course on
integrating inquiry into our existing lessons for teachers just like you.
The data proves that teachers, just like other professionals and athletes,
need coaching and practice in order to be at the top of their game.
I'll give you details of how you can get in on this and take your
professional development into your own hands at the end of this podcast.
So keep listening.
The fourth insight is probably for me the most exciting and honestly
another no brainer and it's this.
The path to increased engagement is through purposeful play.
Learning through play is probably the one strategy that inspires everyone.
And as we know, but sometimes forget or refuse to acknowledge, I don't know
for the life of me why we sell out, but for all sorts of reasons we do.
Learning through play is the most natural way children learn.
We're hardwired to play.
And play is the number one way we learn as children and
I would argue as adults too.
If you go back and listen to my conversations with Marcus Veerman and
Claire Warden and April Zajko, they all agree that playful learning is the most
engaging way for children to learn.
It's through play that creativity and curiosity and confidence and
problem solving and critical thinking and language are all encouraged.
and developed.
Play encourages children to ask questions and develops the whole child.
Just imagine how powerful it would be if we could combine
intentional teaching with play.
When this study through Lego Education asked children what their favourite way
was to learn, they said hands on play based learning was their favourite way.
And guess what?
The older children got, the more their favourite strategy was play.
For me, that also makes perfect sense.
When you think that as children get older, we remove all those playful experiences
that they were having in early childhood
programs and playgrounds.
We think that they're big now.
They don't need that anymore.
But the data from this research says differently.
The older children from grades six to eight overwhelmingly said that hands on
learning and working with their classmates was their favorite way to learn.
And unfortunately, as they got older, we deprive them of that.
The older they get, the less hands on experiences we give them.
I've seen it time and time again that when you observe those older children,
they enjoy the same types of learning experiences as the younger students do.
So my practical takeaway four is this: we must continue to value play as a way
to engage students in their learning.
Early childhood teachers know that play is messy and that play can be
loud and sometimes it's chaotic, but learning through play is a worthwhile
pedagogical approach that not only is in line with children's natural
way of learning, but as the research shows time and time again, it is one
methodology that provides better outcomes.
And for the life of me, if we know this and the research has
been showing this for the longest time, why don't we implement it.
If we say we teach the whole child, then surely we must be teaching through play.
And if we don't know how to do that, then we need to educate and upskill
ourselves so that we can do a better job of teaching in this way and
therefore better engage our students.
And as we know, if our students are engaged, so are we.
And here's another important observation.
Learning through play forms part of an inquiry and project based approach
and the constructivist approach, as I mentioned earlier, when we spoke about
how children like to learn with others.
If we're going to honor the outcomes of the Lego Education study, we need
to teach in a way that incorporates hands on learning, which is play.
Create lessons where children can collaborate together, engage children
better with provocations and questions and strategies that make sure that
they are moving and not just sitting at their seats for ages, listening
to us droning on and improve our own engagement and professional learning.
For us to do that, I think we need to learn how to let go just a little.
There are times that call for us to just be facilitators, where we allow children
to take the lead and we just direct a bit.
We also need to provide those hands on learning experiences and the
tools that allow children to be curious, to ask questions, to move
around, to solve problems and to have discussions with their peers.
When they do this, they can better relate to their experiences in their own lives.
And lastly, we need to create environments that allow and encourage
play where children can construct and problem solve and innovate.
And when you listen to some of my episodes where I've spoken about setting
up classrooms and provocations, I've always been a huge fan of natural
materials, but also of blocks and Lego.
And in fact, the only toys I've kept of my own children are two things,
a huge box of Lego and another box of plastic animals by Schleich.
So many educators complain about not having enough resources and the
study highlights that too,, but then I see all that classroom decorating
going on and I always question why.
Why not just spend your money and your classroom budget on blocks and Lego?
It's the one resource that builds so many skills that are so essential not just
for learning now, but into the future.
. So forget all those cheap toys that are just going to end up
in landfill and just get Lego.
I've purchased Lego for my class by just going on Facebook Marketplace.
And together with wooden construction blocks, you'll be onto a winner.
With Lego, the possibilities for learning are endless.
So before I go, I said that I have something really special for you.
I've had this idea for the longest time and it's been obvious to me that
for some time that educators not only need but crave professional learning
and development and ongoing support.
And as you saw or just heard from this Lego study, for students to be engaged,
Teachers need to be engaged and happy too.
And for teachers to be truly happy and engaged, they need professional
learning and ongoing support.
And as I said before, you can't always wait around for the
administration to offer you some form of professional development.
Sometimes you need to take the bull by the horns and do your own thing
and organise your own learning.
I'm in the throes of developing a course to help you integrate
inquiry into your existing lessons.
And as luck would have it, inquiry based learning meets all those insights
that we've just discovered through that study done by LEGO Education.
I'm offering you an opportunity to take charge of your own development, get
engaged, so that you can engage students and be a happier, happier person.
teacher and educator.
Now, if this is something you'd be interested in, I would love you
to register for the pre launch.
It won't cost you a thing.
You just get on the pre launch.
It's simply you telling me that you'll be interested in a course like
this, so that I know I'm creating something that you actually want.
Because let's face it, there's no use me spending my energy developing
something that You have no use for.
But I am so sure that a course like this will be useful to you and make an impact
on your teaching and on your student learning and engagement because it's
exactly the way I taught in my own class that resulted in my students Year after
year, being excited about learning and going home and getting their parents
involved in what they've learned too.
And I know this works.
I'll leave a link in the show notes for you.
So just go there and register for the pre launch.
Listen, I hope you found some value in today's episode.
I know that you can listen to a million other episodes out there
or a million other podcasts out there, but you chose this one.
And if you did
find some value today, can you do me a massive favor and share this episode with
a couple of friends that you think might find this valuable and of interest too?
That will be amazing.
And if you want to get strategies and insights into how to keep kids curious and
keep yourself curious and happy to learn, then sign up to my weekly newsletter.
It's called Get Curious.
It's totally free and totally read worthy.
You can check out what some of my subscribers say about the
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bloomingcurious.
com forward slash get curious.
I'll leave a link in the show notes for you.
So just go there.
So right now, go and sign up to get curious and click the link to register
your interest in the prelaunch of my upcoming inquiry 101 course.
That's it for this week.
I'll be back same time, same place next week.
And until then, stay blooming curious.