The ABCs of Student Engagement: Teachers Can Increase All-Important Student Engagement by Being Aware of Its Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive Dimensions

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The principal of a large, urban middle school enters Ms. Cecil's 7th-grade classroom during a social studies lesson. One by one, students read a paragraph aloud from the textbook. Between readers, Ms. Cecil asks literal recall questions to random students. If students don't answer accurately, Ms. Cecil reprimands them for not paying attention. At the end of the chapter, students dutifully get out a piece of paper, each writing her/his name and the date neatly in the right-hand corner of the page. One student asks his neighbor for a piece of paper, and Ms. Cecil quickly calls him to her desk where she scolds him for not being prepared and for talking without permission. Ms. Cecil directs students to follow their routine and complete the comprehension questions at the end of the chapter. She encourages them to cover their answers. The principal leaves the class wondering how Ms. Cecil is able to keep all her students on-task almost all the time. Most teachers in the school have difficulty with management and keeping students engaged. Student engagement is receiving a lot of attention lately--and rightly so. Students need to be actively engaged in order to achieve (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). But engagement declines as students progress through the elementary grades to middle school. That makes it important for educators of all grade levels to understand engagement, how to facilitate it, and how to assess it. Traditionally, engagement has been conceptualized as time-on-task, which actually is only one important aspect of classroom instruction (Brophy & Good, 1986). Researchers recognize that student engagement is more complex than just observable behaviors. Consider Ms. Cecil's classroom. Students were on task, but were they really engaged? Actively participating in academic work may well be an intuitive way to think about student engagement, but how many times have you seen students who have the uncanny ability to look busy without really accomplishing anything? How often have you observed students dutifully complete the tasks you assign without applying deep thought? Or, in the case of Ms. Cecil, have you ever been in classrooms where students are intimidated into on-task behavior? Students in these classrooms may be observed as being on task, but they're far from demonstrating strategic consideration of content or an enthusiastic desire to learn. For this reason, scholars (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004; Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000) conceptualize student engagement as a construct encompassing three dimensions: * Affective engagement * Behavioral engagement * Cognitive engagement We refer to these dimensions as the ABCs of student engagement. Affective engagement includes a sense of belonging in the classroom and an interest, curiosity, or enthusiasm around specific topics or tasks (Fredricks & McColskey, 2012). Think about the student who is absolutely captivated by a science lesson that focuses on archeology because she is fascinated by dinosaurs. Behavioral engagement includes time-on-task and active participation in class activities (Fredricks, 2013). But active participation is rooted in a classroom community rather than resulting from fear as in Ms. Cecil's class. Cognitive engagement is a newer construct and includes perseverance and the use of metacognitive and self-regulated strategies. This aspect of engagement is displayed by the student who asked to stay after school to think more about the melting ice caps you mentioned in class. He consults every text you have on the topic and scours the Internet to learn more about global warming, all the while planning ways to share his learning with classmates. It is unlikely that this is the view of engagement held by Ms. Cecil's principal. 3 tips about student engagement Teachers can heighten student engagement if they understand its importance, know the types of tasks that encourage it, and have tools for assessing it. …