Engaged in HSE21

About a month before winter break, I wrote to you about the teacher who shadowed a sophomore and a senior for two full days of sitting on the “other side of the desk.”  She shared what she had learned and how the experience changed her as a teacher.  I heard back from quite a few of you after that entry.  Something about this teacher’s experience resonated with many of you.  Most of you agreed with her conclusions, but many of you commented that changing student attitudes is tough work. 

One consistent response from you and your peers went something like this: “Sadly, students seem to want the monotony.  It is difficult to get them excited, and they actually seem to prefer the ‘sit and get’ approach to education.”

From Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman, creators of "Zits."

I get it! The reality is that it is easier for most students to sit and listen, to take notes and answer multiple choice quiz questions.  It is easier (and maybe feels more efficient) for the teacher to do most of the work, most of the heavy lifting, most of the thinking in class.  On the other hand, none of us believe this approach is the way we should do school.  So what should we do?

I Don't Have Answers

But I have ideas of where to look for answers.   Simply naming this phenomenon is a good first step, and one great source of rock solid information about engaging students in their own learning is Phillip Schlechty.  I first met Schlecthy in his office in Louisville.  He is a slow-talking, extremely warm man, who has a whip-sharp mind, and he has spent his adult life focusing on what motivates students to learn at high levels.

He argues that in all of your classes, you will have students moving somewhat fluidly between five different levels of engagement: Rebellion, Retreatism, Ritual Compliance, Strategic Compliance, and Engagement. 

Students in Rebellion disrupt the learning process.  They have diverted attention and low commitment.  Students in Retreatism simply tune you out.  They have no attention and no commitment.  Ritual Compliance is marked by students going through the motions to avoid negative consequences and results in superficial learning.  They have low attention and low commitment.  Strategic Compliance is identified by students asking, “What do I need to do in order to earn an A?”  (Or D—depending on the student)  They have high attention and low commitment. 

Engagement is harder to define, but you know it when you see it.  You feel it in the classroom, and it results in deep comprehension.  Engaged students associate the classroom activity with personal meaning, and they persist in learning, even in the face of difficulty.  They have high attention and high commitment.

Below is an illustration of what typical classes might look like, depending on the engagement levels of the students.  Green represents engagement.  Work your way clockwise through the other levels down to blue rebellion.  It’s an interesting way to think about your classroom.

From Scoop.it Collection curated by Deanna Dahsad

The goal is to keep as many of the students at the engagement level as much of the time as possible.  Schlechty is clear that the expectation is not for full engagement every minute of every period of every day.  That is an impossible target to hit.  And let’s be honest, a well-managed classroom is hard enough to obtain on some days and much better than the pathological option!  However, the higher the level of engagement and more often students are at this level, says Schlechty, the greater the chance that students will learn at high levels. 

You might notice the similarity in language between Understanding by Design and Phil Schlechty’s work.  There is a natural connection.  Wiggins and McTighe say teaching is all about “transfer.”  This is what Schlechty says engagement provides.  Without engagement, there is no transfer.  Schlechty uses language that is almost word-for-word references to authentic performance tasks, student choice, collaboration, and inquiry learning.

One other place you may have seen similar language to Schlechty and UbD is in the HSE21 Best Practice Model.  Take a look at this diagram again.  It was first developed three years ago, and it is the direction we have been going ever since.

My point is that there is no one answer to changing a classroom culture of compliance to a culture of engagement, but the best educational researchers I know are supporting our current work.  If you want to design lessons that bump up student engagement, a great place to start looking for answers is in the HSE21 Best Practice Model.

We are engaged in the right work and on the right path, HSE.

Phil