Engagement and UDL.

 When one reads the UDL guidelines on the CAST website, the first part of the guidelines focuses on providing multiple means of engagement. Part of my UDL journey is going further in understanding Engagement (Engagement deals with the 'WHY' of learning). 

The first thing that I found interesting is that I had a very narrow and naive view of student engagement. Students listening to lessons, participating, and "having fun” while learning, to me, was engagement. But in digging deeper. It turns out that this is a rather superficial view of engagement. It is not completely wrong, but it is not exactly it. My initial understanding is only a small part of it.  

Engagement is not about how much fun kids are having while learning rather it is about how much they are invested in their learning. There is a lot of student agency in engagement. Students have to be motivated to learn, they need to have made the decision that they can do a task and that they want to do it. They need to know why they are learning what they are learning and decide to do it. As teachers, we can help by providing them with ways to get them motivated and engaged (the manifestation of motivation). Our job is to develop the skills they will need to be engaged and become expert learners. 

Engagement is divided into 3 parts and both teachers and students have a role in each part. The three parts are : 

Recruiting Interest

Spark excitement and curiosity for learning

Our job as teachers is to find ways to get kids to want to engage in the lesson, not because they have to, but because they want to. There are strategies we can use to help with this. 

For example, simply by knowing your students and their interests, you can modify your lessons and their content to connect with them. If students feel a connection between themselves and the learning, they will be more interested. It means that the lesson you reuse yearly for certain topics needs to be tweaked so they feel more relevant to the audience in front of you. 

I like to find out what cartoons, books, and toys are popular with my kids so that I can use them in my lessons: 

In our opinion writing unit, if I model an example with something that matters to only me, the kids will be passive. However, if I use a topic they are familiar with and can relate to, let's say "the bad Guys" book series, then not only will they be active learners in the lesson but when the time comes for them to write their opinion, they will much more motivated to write and share because of the excitement and interest we would have just generated. 

Another way to boost engagement using culturally responsive engagements is to connect things to the real world, to their world.  You can do this in math with real-world applications of their learning or in social studies by bringing in the local aspects of what you are studying. 

In Grade 1, right now, we are focusing on communities, so we are making sure that the students not only make connections with their current community here in Singapore but also with their community back home (As we have lots of expat kids). 

Sustaining Effort & Persistence

Tackle challenges with focus and determination.

Another job we have, beyond getting the kids motivated, is teaching persistence and helping them realize that their efforts will lead to success. I was so happy to listen to this short podcast "Struggle for Smarts?" as it highlighted the importance of not only trying but accepting that struggling is an essential part of learning. It also highlighted that effort and a growth mindset approach to learning should be celebrated. We, as teachers, need to help students develop a growth mindset, develop the grit and stamina needed to see a challenge through and what we need to do is create a culture where we support and celebrate effort. I really like that Dr. Stigler presented struggle as an opportunity and not as a sign of low ability. 

Effort and persistence are in vain if students do not have a clear goal in mind. Students need to know where they are going, what they are doing, and how to measure their progress and eventual success towards a precise goal. Their effort, persistence, and struggle are directly connected to the 3rd part: self-regulation and reflection. 

Self Regulation

Harness the power of emotions and motivation in learning

Reflection, self-assessment, and self-regulation, all come from within. We can assess kids, we can just tell them what we see and we can tell them what to do, but if the students are not part of the process and just expected to do as they are told, one's class will just be populated by students who display either Strategic compliance or Ritual compliance. 

What we want to create is a classroom where students display high commitment (and ideally high attention as well, but I am ok with a bit of chaos if there is high commitment). 

Our job here is to teach the kids skills that will help them cope emotionally with struggle. Resilience has to build up and we need to support the kids in their effort and help them realize that their efforts will bear their fruit. While we provide a learning goal for the kids with every lesson, it is important that the student develop the skills to self-assess and reflect on their learning and their process. If we want them to become expert learners, they need to regularly check on their progression and decide what their next step is. We are here to facilitate this through providing tools for self-assessment and providing feedback (first we provide it and eventually, you want the student to independently seek feedback from the teacher AND peers). 

The learning environment we provide is key. If we provide an environment that promotes autonomy, decision-making on the part of the student regarding their goals and is flexible as to remove barriers, then our students' motivation and engagement will not only be high, but we will also have helped them become expert learners.