Teachers’ pedagogies and strategies of engagement

Abstract

Engagement of students in their learning is a positive approach to enhance their educational experience. Engagement is, however, a broad term with a variety of meanings. When attempting to engage students in order to raise their academic attainment it is likely that teachers’ beliefs about engagement will influence pedagogical practices. A review of 720 articles, published since 2000, found six kinds of engagement, with cognitive and emotional engagement being most strongly linked to academic attainment. The review found that studies often focused on older learners, while elementary students were under-represented. This prompted a mixed methods study involving interviews, an online survey of 600 teachers, and lesson observations exploring teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding engagement, focusing on those teaching children of 8-11 years. The study identified five categories of teacher, each favouring a particular pedagogy of engagement. Many teachers also believed that no special effort to engage higher ability children is needed. Without recognition that all need to be supported to engage in their learning, some teachers risk failing to provide for more able students. We recommend that there should be theory-guided training to help teachers identify indicators of emotional and intellectual engagement, to help them vary their strategy, and which points to the need to consider all students, including those of high ability.