Chapter 1: Research and Theory

1. Chapter 1:Research and Theory “Research on motivation and engagement is essential to understanding some of the most fundamental and vexing challenges of school reform.” page 3

2. The four aspects of engagement: • Emotions: How do I feel? • Interest: Am I interested? • Perceived Importance: Is this important? • Perceptions of Efficacy: Can I do this?

3. Emotions: How do I feel? “When students feel enthusiastic or zestful, they are more disposed to engage in new behaviors and tasks.” page 4 • Students Energy Levels • A Teacher’s Positive Demeanor • Students’ Perceptions of Acceptance

4. Students’ Energy Levels • When teachers use lessons that are appropriately paced and keep moving students are more engaged. Page 4 • Teacher’s should try to add a physical element to lessons in order to increase blood flow and oxygen to the brain. Page 5

5. A Teacher’s positive demeanor • “A positive demeanor on the part of the teacher is…the most general influence on emotional engagement. The teacher can communicate a positive demeanor…through demonstrating enthusiasm and intensity, both of which have been associated with student engagement and achievement.” page 5

6. Students’ Perceptions of acceptance • “If students sense that they are not welcome, accepted, or support in the classroom, it is unlikely that they will engage in classroom activities.” page 6 • “A teacher can take concrete steps to foster accepting and supportive teacher-student and peer relationships, thus increasing the probability that students will respond positivity to the emblematic question—How do I feel?” page 7

7. Interest: Am I interested? “Even if an individual is engaged emotionally…he or she may still fail to engage in a new activity simply because he or she doesn’t perceive it as interesting” page 7 • Game Like Activities • Friendly Controversy • Unusual Information • Effective Questioning Strategies

8. Game-like activities • “Game like activities help trigger situational interest” page 9 • “Any activity with a rich contextual background that presents students with missing information will trigger situational interest” page 9 • “When playing games pressure should remain at the right level of intensity and duration to provide positive benefits for engagement” page 10

9. Friendly controversy • “Conflict can be used in the classroom to enhance student achievement…controversies among students can promote transitions to higher stages of cognitive and moral reasoning.” page 10

10. Unusual information • “Student curiosity is the driving force that underlies many theorists’ suggestions for motivating students.” page 11

11. Effective questioning strategies • “Questions can generate mild pressure that helps stimulate attention.” page 12 • “Increasing the number of students who respond to any given question helps capture the working memories of more students.” page 12 • “Increasing the rate at which students respond is a commonly mentioned technique to increase the effectiveness of instruction.” page 12

12. Perceived Importance: Is this important? “The more a teacher can tap into students’ higher-level goals, the more engaged the class as a whole will be.” page 12 • The Self-System • Personal Goals • Cognitively Complex Tasks

13. The Self-System • “The self system contains goals that individuals bring to every situation.” page 13 • “Whether, an individual engages in a particular activity or not is dependent on whether he or she perceives that activity as relevant to one or more goals in the self system.” page 13

14. Personal Goals • “Students are more likely to engage in school goals that are linked to their personal goals.” page 13

15. Cognitively Complex Tasks “When students are challenged to use information they have learned to solve problems, make decisions, conduct investigations, and create hypotheses regarding real world issues, they are much more likely to see what they are learning as important.” page 14

16. Perceptions of Efficacy: Can I do this? “Self-efficacy refers to the perceived capabilities for learning or performing actions at designated levels.” page 16 • Possible Selves • Self-Theories

17. Possible Selves • “Possible selves are cognitive representations of an individual’s future.” page 16 • “The extend to which students have developed clear conceptions of who they might become in the future enables them to develop skills and gather resources that add up to a sense of self-efficacy.” page 16

18. Self-Theories • “The best way to motivate students is to boost their confidence by frequently praising them and assuring them of their intelligence.” page 16 • “Students develop self-theories that make a major difference regarding the way they approach challenging situations.” page 17 • “One of the most exciting aspects of self-theories is that they can shift” page 18

19. A Model of attention and engagement A teacher is always asking and answering two questions about students: 1. Do I have their attention? If students positively responds to the questions “How do I feel?” and “Am I interested?” then you have there attention. 2. Are they engaged? If students positively respond to the questions “Is this important?” and “Can I do this?” then they are engaged.