It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. You know what I mean. We’ve all seen those black-and-white photos of students from the 1800s sitting quietly in rows, silent, and in fear of reprisal like something out of a Dickens novel. And there on the wall, if you look closely, are the classroom rules for all to see and heed:
- Be silent during class. Do not talk unless it is absolutely necessary.
I’m not kidding. This was actually a common rule in most classrooms. As someone who prefers to honor our history and not belittle it, I point this out only to say that we have come a long way as educators and as school systems.
Still, as we stumble and explore better methods for student collaboration and discussion, let us keep in mind how important this work is. Among all the strategies we find in the research, student engagement may be the most critical. Even so, we don’t always agree on our definitions and evidences of engagement, along with related terms like “relevancy” and “personalization.” At least we all know what we don’t want. We don’t want ritual engagement. We don’t want students staring for hours on end at the teacher like the kids in those black-and-white photos.
We can probably agree that student engagement by any definition requires students to be “doing something” or “thinking something,” as well as some form of genuine interest in the topic. As a mental model, you might picture kids taking part in some hands-on activity like using a math manipulative or dissecting a frog.
Still, some cautions are provided as well:
- Our students may be doing something that is “hands on” but may not be doing something rigorous. As an example, let us consider a science lab where students partner up and follow step-by-step instructions with great precision but may not be asked to make sense of what they are doing in a way that deepens their understanding of science.
- Our students may be dutifully taking part in the activity while still not tuned in mentally, probably spending most of their cognitive time thinking about the birthday party they went to last weekend.
There is no student engagement without collaboration and discussion
This is why student talk is so critical to increasing actual learning, not just engagement.
In fact, the real question we should be asking is whether it is even possible to be engaged in learning if we are not talking with someone. Let’s let that rattle around for a moment before we respond too quickly.
In fact, I think it is fair to ask if there has ever been a level of true engagement that has not involved discussion or debate. To put it another way, we have to wonder if someone can be engaged and be alone at the same time.
Why? Because learning is rarely a solo act.
As educators, we must wrestle with this conundrum: If there really are things that we can learn on our own (let’s say from reading a book), then why are we teaching those things in school? And that brings us right back to the question about what we should be teaching if most answers can be found on Google anyway. By the way, it just took me 20 seconds to find out that Kennedy was our 35th president and the Battle of Waterloo was fought in 1815.
Intellectual maturity requires mastery of things that we cannot learn alone
I say school should be designed around those key competencies that you simply cannot learn on your own. If we did, then school would be designed around collaboration, discussion, interpretation, and debate. We would collectively wrestle with complex and life-changing concepts that are the true game-changers on our way to intellectual maturity and self-actualization.
Here are a few for our consideration:
Sampling / Complex Academic Competencies
- Advanced computation, problem-solving
- Scientific method, design and analyses
- Interpretation, evaluation and analysis of information
- Integration of art, design, and technical tools / skills
Sampling / Complex Life and Workplace Competencies
- Critical Thinking
- Creativity
- Emotional Intelligence
- Listening, Speaking, Reasoning
- Collaboration
- Kindness, Respect
In the simplest of terms, being engaged requires student voice or some version of self-expression. Though voice is typically observed through student talk, it can accomplished through writing (including journaling, music, poetry, tweeting, and blogging). Because here is the key question: What is really the point of having us know how to think if we don’t know how to articulate what we are thinking? Self-expression is one form of self-actualization.
The key to learning is authentic engagement, and that requires high-cognitive skills like analysis and synthesis and, at some point, an authentic expression of our understanding of that which we have learned. Without that, we may hear a lot of student voices but, in the end, it’s all just noise.
