Learner Engagement – Ten Strategies For Success
I could swear my watch was going backwards. This had to be the most boring lesson ever. The tutor had his back to us; he was writing mathematical formula on the whiteboard and muttering to himself. I was the fortunate one. Here to observe the tutor, I could leave after 1 hour. The official learners were not so lucky. They were trapped here for a further 2 hours and not one person was engaged in the learning process. The damage caused by this tutor could have far reaching consequences. It could have an impact on their next piece of course work, affect the classification of their results and, more importantly, influence their engagement with the subject for the rest of their lives. The disappointing thing was that this tutor did not know how dismal this experience was to us at the receiving end.
So what should learning professionals do to improve engagement?
1. Select activities that are at a correct level of difficulty and are motivating, interesting and stretching to the learner. It is important to consider the learners’ interests, prior knowledge, current skills levels and attention span. Another lesson I observed was on materials and their properties. In this case the tutor, a subject matter expert and skilled educator, quickly established that one of the class had worked in a plastics factory and had unique first hand experience of handling such materials. This information was used to great effect. It enhanced the session and added value in ways that could not be envisaged at the start of the class. This leads onto the next point:
2. The more opportunities learners have to respond to particular information or to practice a skill, the better their understanding of that subject or skill. When learners are actively involved in an activity, for example, writing, solving a problem, doing an experiment, in contrast to being passively involved, for example, just listening to a tutor, greater gains are made.
3. To enhance understanding it is important to contextualise learning so that learners can apply the principles to everyday situations. For this, education providers need to have an effective employer engagement strategy; one that is flexible and responsive to the needs of industry. Employers should be encouraged to help with the design, management and delivery of relevant segments of the curriculum; organise visits to their business premises; give access to live data and provide resource packs.
4. Learning plans to personalise the learning for each student is an important strategy to improve engagement. To achieve this work needs to be organised in a way that satisfies different levels of ability and rates of progress. It could mean providing extra tasks for a higher level pass, additional material for people struggling to grasp the content or another opportunity to practice a certain skill to gain proficiency and achieve success.
5. Good classroom management also has an impact on learner engagement. Sessions should start at their scheduled time. The tutor should be well prepared ahead of time and should begin by giving learners a clear statement of the lesson’s aims. To minimise inappropriate behaviour, tutors should have clearly stated rules, expect and reward appropriate behaviour, be consistent, and handle inappropriate behaviour efficiently. As such, there should be a sensible limit to the number of times learners can go the bathroom, visit their locker, listen to their MP3 players and engage in other distracting activities.
Learning time can be seriously eaten into if discussions are allowed to drift from the point of the lesson. This can be tutor or learner instigated but who ever the villain, valuable time can be lost and learning ‘switched off’. It really does not take much for this to happen.
6. Learner involvement. The publication, Further Education: Raising Skills, Improving Life Chances, published in March 2006 states ‘We know that when learners participate in decisions affecting their learning experience, they are likely to play a more active role in the provider’s quality improvement processes – a key lever of service improvement’. This is particularly important as the Government’s priorities are; to increase success rates and encourage progression; narrow the gap in educational achievement between young people from different backgrounds; prepare for the raising of the participation age to 17 and then 18 by 2015 and generally raise the quality of provision across all providers.
Increased involvement, which covers a wide variety of practices that seek to enable, equip and motivate learners, is called the ‘learner voice’ and this is an important feature of any engagement strategy. This can include having learner governors, student representatives on committees and curriculum review boards. The ‘learner voice’ has to be considered in the self assessment review (SAR) process. Learners are encouraged to collaborate and challenge assertions made in the SAR in relation to the organisation’s strengths, weaknesses and quality improvement plans.
A wider range of learners can be involved by asking them to complete course review and evaluation forms and for smaller numbers to take part in focus groups. The latter tool is particularly useful as it allows more qualitative information to be gathered than is found on standard questionnaire based surveys and this can provide more valuable insights.
Whether learners remain involved over time will depend on how the information is used and the outcomes communicated. If learners feel that the organisation is merely going through the motions and is not truly taking into account their ideas they will become sceptical and will quickly disengage from future activities.
7. The above will not happen without improved pastoral and other support. Help will be needed to undo prior barriers to learning and all advice must be impartial and realistic. Pastoral support should be offered at an earlier stage and at key transition points for learners who are identified as being at risk of ‘drifting’ away from education before achieving their qualification goals. This could also have an impact on their future opportunities for employment. There is a need to boost learning and achievement and provide a healthy stretch to ambition. The use of mentors, role models and peer support can greatly encourage engagement.
8. Tutors and support staff who are involved in developing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and confidence of young learners should undertake regular and relevant professional development activities that focus on learner engagement.
9. There should also be effective dialogue between tutors and the parents and carers of learners. The key messages must be effectively communicated between the parties and learners should understand the responsibility they have in the learning process and the possible consequences if they take the decision to disengage.
And finally
10. As always, good practice should be disseminated widely to communities of practice across the sector.
