Educational Values Related to Engagement, Interest and Meaningful Activity
Engagement and Interest: Structures that allow for continuity in relationships, consistency in practices, and predictability in routines that reduce anxiety and support engaged learning, Relational trust and respect between and among staff, students, and parents. As part of productive instructional strategies. (SoLD) Interest is a powerful motivational process that energizes learning and guides academic and career trajectories. One can stimulate students’ developing new interests in the first two phases (triggered and maintained situational interest), and maintain or strengthen interests for students in the second two phases (emerging and well-developed individual interest). In so doing, teachers can foster students’ motivation and achievement. Various factors triggered situational interest such as hands-on activities, novelty, surprise, and group work.
Alberta Education cites "current research about student engagement is telling us that there is a close relationship between students’ experience of engagement and student learning. It has revealed that students learn best when they are engaged in deep, sustained and compelling work… in the company of teachers dedicated to taking up their work in generous, informed and exciting ways…with students who feeling a strong sense of belonging. Student engagement occurs when students make a psychological investment in learning. Students are engaged when they are involved in their work, persist despite challenges and obstacles, and take visible delight in accomplishing their work. Learning tasks that engage students have particular characteristics. They require and instill deep, critical thinking. They immerse the student in disciplinary inquiry. They are authentic and relevant for students. They require students to interact and be meaningfully involved. And they have intellectual rigor.
Interest is a powerful motivational process that energizes learning and guides academic and career trajectories (Renninger & Hidi, 2016) Particular situations trigger interest, which can then develop across situations and over time to become more enduring. First, features of the environment (e.g., novelty, ambiguity, surprise) catch the person’s attention. This situational interest can last longer, beyond a single situation, if tasks seem meaningful and involving (i.e., if the student perceives the task as valuable or enjoyable). Over time, repeated experiences of triggered and maintained situational interest can develop into an emerging individual interest, such that the individual seeks opportunities to reengage with the object.
A number of measures have been used in the research to determine if students are engaged in their learning. Historically, measures have focused on behaviours such as attendance and quantitative data such as achievement and graduation rates. More recently, researchers are looking at qualitative data focused on engagement in learning. For example engagement can be measured by the extent to which students identify with and value schooling outcomes, have a sense of belonging at school, participate in academic and non academic activities, strive to meet formal requirements of schooling and make serious personal investment in learning."
Placed-based activities meet these criteria and focus on the central purpose of making communities better places. The link between engagement and meaningful experience is compelling. The data presents a strong case for involving students in real, valued experiences, accessible through place-based activities.
Alberta Education cites "current research about student engagement is telling us that there is a close relationship between students’ experience of engagement and student learning. It has revealed that students learn best when they are engaged in deep, sustained and compelling work… in the company of teachers dedicated to taking up their work in generous, informed and exciting ways…with students who feeling a strong sense of belonging. Student engagement occurs when students make a psychological investment in learning. Students are engaged when they are involved in their work, persist despite challenges and obstacles, and take visible delight in accomplishing their work. Learning tasks that engage students have particular characteristics. They require and instill deep, critical thinking. They immerse the student in disciplinary inquiry. They are authentic and relevant for students. They require students to interact and be meaningfully involved. And they have intellectual rigor.
Interest is a powerful motivational process that energizes learning and guides academic and career trajectories (Renninger & Hidi, 2016) Particular situations trigger interest, which can then develop across situations and over time to become more enduring. First, features of the environment (e.g., novelty, ambiguity, surprise) catch the person’s attention. This situational interest can last longer, beyond a single situation, if tasks seem meaningful and involving (i.e., if the student perceives the task as valuable or enjoyable). Over time, repeated experiences of triggered and maintained situational interest can develop into an emerging individual interest, such that the individual seeks opportunities to reengage with the object.
A number of measures have been used in the research to determine if students are engaged in their learning. Historically, measures have focused on behaviours such as attendance and quantitative data such as achievement and graduation rates. More recently, researchers are looking at qualitative data focused on engagement in learning. For example engagement can be measured by the extent to which students identify with and value schooling outcomes, have a sense of belonging at school, participate in academic and non academic activities, strive to meet formal requirements of schooling and make serious personal investment in learning."
Placed-based activities meet these criteria and focus on the central purpose of making communities better places. The link between engagement and meaningful experience is compelling. The data presents a strong case for involving students in real, valued experiences, accessible through place-based activities.