Our IC sent us this article that outlines a Gallup poll on student engagement. It says that in elementary school, 8/10 students are engaged, whereas in middle school it's 6/10 and high school is 4/10. What do you think are the reasons for this?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2013/01/gallup_student_engagement_drops_with_each_grade.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Hi Megan,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting article. As a second grade teacher, I can attest that the vast majority of my students are very engaged and enthusiastic about learning. At that age, everything is new and exciting and they are eager to acquire the skills that their parents and older students have - the ability to read, write, and work on a computer. They make rapid progress and they can see the results of their efforts.
I think that things get much more challenging for students and teachers in the middle school and high school years. Having mastered some of the basic academic skills, students are more demanding consumers. They want to study things that are of interest to them and really need to know how their learning applies to their real world needs and aspirations. The author makes a good point about our tendency to have a college driven curriculum in high school, based on the assumption that all students will go to college. It is great that so many students in the United States have access to a college education, if they want one, but I think that we could do more to support students who have other goals, such as the trades. It is a complicated issue, and the author seems to think that there is a strong correlation between the demands to meet standardized testing benchmarks and the disengagement of older students. I think that this could be one factor, but that there are many others. Thanks for sharing this thought-provoking article with us.
Beth
What an interesting article. I would say that having taught at the middle and high school level, the statistics seem fairly accurate. With my 7th grade English students it is easier to get them to participate in activities and it is easier to get them to buy in to learning - they are more willing to do things that make themselves look foolish or goofy. I also think that the more simplistic nature of learning in middle school makes creating hands-on/active learning opportunities more possible. In high school I think that demanding coursework is one of the reasons we see such lack of engagement. Students need to read longer books and do more complicated math problems. While I think that you can teach these things in active ways, in the end there is just more work. Also, high school students are more independent and think about their identity more than elementary students. So I think that if some work doesn't fit into their identity or plan, they will be less likely to do the work. Finally I would say that students who are middle school and high school aged try to exercise their choice not to do things more often.
ReplyDeleteOf course I agree that standardized testing fits in to the mix as well. The reason we can't do as many hands on activities often is because we need to push through more material at a faster pace.
If you look at the European model, students are diverted into different paths earlier--some to traditional college, some to a trade school, and some to a service career. I think it's a great model in some ways because different ways of learning and being trained for different careers is recognized. However, I am a very different person than I was in 4th grade--and if I was put on a service career path (as I likely may have been) I may have missed out by being on a road that didn't make me happy or be very fulfilling. So I think that it's complicated--the question of engagement. I taught at a trade school--technical college for a few years. There were multiple opportunities for hands-on, and some students were still not engaged. There are complicated factors at work--mental health and depression, chemical dependency--a whole myriad of learning disabilities that may be undiagnosed. So I think our answers to the problem should look at a variety of factors. We don't teach in a sterile environment--there are all kinds of other factors on these students that may keep them NOT engaged even if you do a horse and pony show every single day. So in some sense, you can't just fault boring classrooms. But I am sure there are ways we can make our education more accessible. There are also many societal ills that can be addressed outside of the school system--by social programs, educational opportunities such as financial aid. I could go on and on, so I will stop now :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of what you said, Ann. I think there are SO many factors that go into a student's level of engagement. Simply put, the older a student gets, the more life experiences they have had. For some students, many of these experiences might not always be positive--affecting their engagement, outlook on the future, outlook on the present etc...
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