Strategies to Promote Engagement

Many of us are half way through our terms and often this is when fatigue intersects with increased workloads, which can produce elevated stress. I certainly do not have the magic pedagogical remedy, but perhaps this 2013 research article on "Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity" may help us further create helpful, accessible learning environment so that all of our students can succeed (which can reduce stress). The author (Tanner) organizes the strategies into categories:

• Giving students opportunities to think and talk;

• Encouraging, demanding, and actively managing the participation of all students;

• Building an inclusive and fair classroom community;

• Monitoring behavior to cultivate divergent thinking; and

• Teaching all of the students.

I will share ten from the list that I have seen many faculty use successfully for your review and consideration. Feel free to review the paper for a full explanation:

1. Wait Time (3-5 seconds after asking a question)

2. Allow time to write (students need more scaffolding—more instruction and guidance—about how to use the time they have been given to think)

3. Multiple hands, multiple voices

4. Integrate culturally relevant examples (connect in some way to the lived experiences of students)

5. Work in stations or small groups (then jigsaw)

6. Use varied active strategies, such as Think-Pair-Share (link to a list of 289)

7. Ask open-ended questions

8. Establish classroom community norms (“Everyone has something to learn.” “Everyone is expected to support their colleagues.” “All ideas will be treated respectfully.")

9. Teach from the moment students arrive

10. Collect assessment evidence from every student every class session [daily minute papers, exit tickets, student response systems (Angelo & Cross, 1993)]

References

Angelo T. & Cross, K. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, SF: Jossey-Bass.

Tanner, K. (2013). Structure matters: Twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity. CBE Life Sciences Education, 12(3), 322–331.