There seems to be a few different opinions on what exactly the engaged learner is but the consensus is a student that is a successful, self-regulated, problem-solver that will be a lifelong learning. The student may also enjoy working with groups of classmates, has defined goals for their learning, and is creative. The focus of this review is on learning tasks, instructional models, and assessment. Lastly, I will compare my own teaching characteristics and practices to the engaged learning principals
The first principal on learning tasks is an idea that the engaged learner needs genuine, demanding, and multidisciplinary work to succeed. This idea sounds very good but I find it difficult to determine in my subject matter, of energy technology, where the work level needs to be. We have objectives that are on the lower level of Bloom’s Taxonomy and others at the higher levels. I find myself teaching lessons in the middle, which I can now see isn’t always fair to the engaged learner, but I feel in the first few weeks of class I could evaluate more and make changes to specific assignments to capture that group. An example, would be having the student complete a worksheet that has them doing research on types of renewable feedstock’s to make biofuels. By asking specific questions to get specific answers I am not allowing the engaged students to expand past the task of doing basic investigating. This task could be more creative and contain different disciplines if the student researches the history, profit margins and science behind the biofuel industry.
The second principal is instructional models for the engaged learner. These models should encourage the learner to become a problem-solver, to enjoy projects, and interact with peers in a constructive manner. In addition it should help the teacher develop a working relationship, whereas the student needs a facilitator more an instructor in the classroom. I think in certain portions of my courses I try hard to make pieces of this principal come to life. For example, I have developed numerous hands-on lab activities that must be completed with a partner. For the engaged learner doing an activity that requires teamwork and is project driven is a great experience for them. In all of my labs students need to reflect on the problems they are solving. I want students boost their cause and effect skills and think about ways to make labs more effective. The engaged learner would like a flexible lab setting that expects him or her to work with small groups of different personality, race or sex. All of these variables should be looked at as learning opportunities for that student and I feel I need to explore them more. To expand on the feedstock research paper I mentioned earlier I should have students describe and demonstrate through technology the process of finding the proper feedstock and work on creating a lab activity that would allow them to make biofuel specific to it.
In reviewing some of the strategies the go along with instructional models Jones, Valdez, Nowakowski, & Rasmussen (1994) have stated that “ group summarizing, exploring multiple perspectives, using techniques for building upon prior knowledge, and brainstorming” have been found to stimulate the learner. Of these I find building up prior knowledge to be somewhat challenging because unless you pretest the students you don’t seldom have students at the same level of knowledge so you have re-teach the fundamentals before tackling new material.
The final engaging principal is assessment of the engaged learner. This type of assessment is where the instructor might interview or observe the students completing a task. It is similar to how employers examine workers in performance evaluations. As the teacher you should create opportunities to examine your students completing a project, maybe at first using a rubric and then moving onto asking the students questions about what they have learned. Furthermore, you could have the engaged learner teach his or her classmates what they have studied or design a lesson that has students teaching students. In my own instruction I tend to step back and let students work together to figure out problems to teach each other. I find the students will achieve the objective. One area that I am continually working on is developing rubrics that account for performance. To excite the engaged learner I should have the students develop a rubric for a project and record the results.
In conclusion, the concept of teaching to the engaged learner has numerous possibilities if you can filter through your student’s strengths and weaknesses. By determining what they excel at early you can then curve your lessons to fit the problem-solver or group worker that is self driven and needs a facilitator more than a demanding teacher.
Works Cited
Jones, B., Valdez, G., Nowakowski, J., & Rasmussen, C. (1994). North. Retrieved August 31, 2010, from Learning Points Associates: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/engaged.htm
