Literacy teaching and learning in e-Learning contexts

Chapter 3: Student engagement

Higher levels of student engagement

Student engagement is important because of the correlations shown in the research literature between engagement and achievement in literacy learning (Wylie, Hipkins, & Hodgen, 2008). The e-fellows reported observing higher levels of student engagement during their e-fellow projects than in more traditional literacy activities. Indicators of high levels of engagement included increased: “on task” behaviour; concentration and perseverance; willingness to spend out-of-school time on project work; and fewer behaviour management problems.

Increased “on task” behaviour and sustained attention

One indicator of student engagement is the amount of “on task” behaviour exhibited. Teachers considered that more students were “on task” and for longer periods of time during the e-fellow project work than in traditional literacy activities.

"They are on task longer. They did it for a whole day on Monday. I usually do twenty minutes a subject and I have to remind them to be on task two or three times. On Monday they worked through from 9.30 to 12.30 on one subject. It’s massive!" (Year 3 teacher, interview)

"They are on task, they are working, they are thinking about what they are doing, they are engaged, they are succeeding. It’s a real motivator for them." (Year 7/8 teacher, interview)

Not only did students stay on task for longer but they showed a higher level of concentration and perseverance than teachers had seen previously. This included a commitment to repeatedly revisit work to improve it, or stick with a problem until it was solved.

"Some children will persevere to achieve a quality recording even if this means seven to eight takes." (Year 2 teacher, interview)

"They were so certain they could have it look like that man flies through the air. They tried string, they tried nylon. They persevered for an hour and eventually they got it." (Year 4–6 teacher, August hui)

"[There was] a lot of heated discussions about what shape to make: ‘Is this good enough?’" (Year 7/8 teacher, interview)

"[The group] practised the difficult vocab over and over to get it right." (Year 7/8 teacher, interview)

We also observed numerous instances of high levels of student perseverance. The following discussion from a focus group with the Year 4–6 group was typical.

Researcher: "Are there any bits you still need to improve before you are ready to film?"

Student 1: "Practice."

Student 2: "Our script. Memorising. Cos we keep on getting muck ups and then we redo it and redo it."

Student 1: "We’re getting too excited and having to try do the filming but…"

Researcher: "So you’ve had several goes at the script?"

Student 3: "Yep. And we have to practise saying it. We have to practise saying it so you can memorise it."

Teachers also found that students were willing to revisit work to make improvements in a way they had not been prepared to previously.

"The first thing that they’re willing to do that the hand written people aren’t willing to do is resubmitting their work…Like I noticed [student] did it nearly instantaneously. I’d written a comment and said this is only an ‘achieved’ at the moment, you need to do x, y, and z and by the next morning I’d had an email back saying, ‘ I’ve done those changes you want. Can you look at it again.’ And that you don’t get that instantaneous sort of reworking of a draft when you give them the piece of refill back and say do you mind re-writing that up. You never see it again." (Year 11 teacher, interview)

"He has already said he’s got so many suggestions to make it [his completed story] better." (Year 3/4 teacher, August hui)

Use of “free” time for e-fellow-related work

Another indicator of student engagement is willingness to take part in literacy activities when faced with a range of alternative options. The e-fellows provided us with many in-class examples of this happening. For example, the Year 3/4, Year 7/8 and the new entrant teacher all observed that students in their classes were reading more and more often in their own time.

"They are doing a lot more reading…They used to just pick up the sports books and the comic books and look at the pictures. Now they actually read." (Year 3/4 teacher, interview)

"It was lovely today to see two boys who don’t normally choose to read in the snuggle corner, cuddled up looking at a book together." (New entrant teacher, blog)

The new entrant teacher also noticed an increase in the number of students in her class bringing books from home to share, making their own picture books, playing and acting out stories, and writing about picture book characters in writing time.

"Four children have brought their favourite books in to share. I didn’t ask them to or tell their parents. That’s interesting. There is a kind of creative synergy that occurs when teaching and learning are at their best, a kind of group electricity that seems to take on its own momentum. It’s happening now. It’s fun and a bit dangerous. You don’t quite know where it will lead." (New entrant teacher, blog)

"I didn’t ask them to do it but they just started writing spontaneously about the characters [from The Lion in the Meadow]." (New entrant teacher, August hui)

In many cases students were also choosing to work on literacy related activities at home. One of the most strenuous debates about the real victim in The True Story of the Three Little Pigs was carried out on-line at 7pm in the evening among three students from the Year 4 teacher’s class. The Year 7/8 teacher had one student asking if she could continue contributing to the reading blog after her family moved to Oman, and another contributing during his holiday in Samoa. She also stumbled across a reluctant reader trying to finish her book at the squash club after school so that she could post it to the blog the next day.

The Year 7/8 teacher described how some of her lower ability students looked up Shackleton on Google at home, something that did not normally happen, and the increased interest and engagement in their work that this showed. The new entrant, Year 3/4, and Year 4 teachers all had students from their classes choosing to continue with their school literacy activities at home.

"Two children made their own books at home and brought them to school today. The parents tell me the children are acting out stories at home now. The culture of the class is changing." (New entrant teacher, blog)

"Even the parents have said they’re [the children are] happy to pick up a book." (Year 3/4 teacher, interview)

"I am excited by the success we are having with the children choosing their own books to read. I have had two parents comment about how their children are reading, reading and reading…and discussing the progress of their story. They have chosen lengthier books…They race to tell me each day what has happened in the story. They are eager to read each other’s book next. I am seeing a growing love of books—what more can I ask for, a teacher’s dream." (Year 4 teacher, blog)

Fewer behaviour management problems

Associated with an increase in on task behaviour in a number of cases was a decrease in behaviour management problems.

"The students are buzzing and the ‘reluctant’ readers are tuned in the entire time in the classroom. Not once have I had any difficulty with management or ensuring someone is staying on task…" (Year 7/8 teacher, blog)

"Often things go missing in my room but the workbooks never did…They realised the value of them—that they couldn’t go on without them." (Year 7/8 teacher, August hui)

Nearly all of the teachers told a story of a child or group of children they had found particularly difficult whose behaviour completely changed in the context of their e-Learning project.

"He’s a kid who locks himself in toilets and runs away. Yet here he is—he rocks up to bloggers every week. He got called out of bloggers and so he ran away because if he couldn’t do bloggers, he wasn’t going to do anything at all." (Year 7/8 teacher, interview)

"He is showing a higher standard of writing and explaining, not straying from the task." (Year 7/8 teacher)

"I just look at those boys. I couldn’t have asked for a better change in attitude [to writing]. It’s a complete change in attitude." (Year 3/4 teacher, interview)

"He has been a kid right through his schooling who…teachers have [found difficult]. Well he’s taken on this organisational [role], very great ideas, but not by putting down anyone, but just working all together. [He’s] now become the ultimate little director, organisational person. It’s quite fascinating…instead of being isolated and having to work on his own, or tossing out the bare minimum, he’s now actually committed to tossing out product that’s going to build on [his learning]. In the past have done [only] his one page." (Year 4–6 teacher, interview)

The Year 3/4 teacher told how the first student in her class to complete his story was a student who had never previously completed a piece of work. The Year 7/8 teacher told of a group of boys who revisited their work over and over to perfect it. These were students who would be “totally switched off if they had been given the traditional task of making a poster”.

Cross-mode transfer of engagement

Teachers found that for students engagement in one mode often led to engagement in another. For example, the Year 7/8 teacher and the Year 4–6 teacher both observed that students who had previously been reluctant to read or write showed greater commitment to these activities because their movie needed a script. The new entrant teacher found that playing, acting, painting, dancing, and talking about the stories students heard led to increased engagement in reading them, and in writing about them. The Year 3/4 teacher found that deep engagement in story writing led to increased student engagement in reading their peers stories and other texts.

What about the students who were not so engaged?

Most of the e-fellows had at least one student in their class who did not respond so positively to the environment created for the e-Learning projects. These were often students who had achieved well in more traditional literacy learning environments. For example, the Year 4 teacher considered the least engaged student in her literature circle group to be someone who needed the security provided by more traditional style reading lessons:

"He’s the one who hasn’t made any great gains with this because he’s still trying to see the easy side. And actually, I don’t believe he’s finished any role…To me I think he does have a lot of fear. He comes across as a confident boy but I think very much with his background and things like that, that he has to be right…[He prefers an [approach where] he can go to it [the page] and find an answer and that will be it. It doesn’t really require anything greatly from himself." (Year 4 teacher, interview)

The Year 3/4 teacher considered that the students whose stories did not evolve were students who relied on a more teacher directed and structured approach to writing.

"They were not used to making decisions for themselves." (Year 3/4 teacher, interview)

"Some kids I thought would find certain tasks easier have struggled. Maybe [it is] because they like more structure. One kid was ‘not coping’. [Her parent] said she [the child] didn’t know what to do. You could see their lack of confidence." (Year 3/4 teacher, interview)

The Year 7/8 teacher also noted that a less structured approach to reading led to some students “coasting”.

"There are some ‘avoiders’ though who have been happy enough to have their mentors ‘model’ reviews for them, with very little effort from them required." (Year 7/8 teacher, blog)

The teachers responded by providing these students with options that included more structure. For example, rather than handing all her students the responsibility for choosing their own novels for their literature circle, the Year 4 teacher gave students the choice of doing this or working more closely with her on a novel that she had chosen. Several students, including the one referred to in the example above, took this safer option. The Year 3/4 teacher chose to work more closely with those students in her class who needed more direction. The Year 7/8 teacher added an accountability component to the blogging process (a log to fill in when students completed a book and an entry space for them to reflect on their posting) as a means of supporting the students referred to earlier who appeared to be “coasting”. Teachers saw these as interim measures—a way of scaffolding these students towards more independent and self directed learning.

Summary

The e-fellows’ observations that most students demonstrated higher than usual levels of engagement in their e-fellow project work supports the evidence of student learning presented in Chapter 2. As indicated at the start of this chapter, there is a large body of evidence in the research literature of links between student engagement and student achievement in literacy learning. The research evidence tends to centre on reading and writing but the evidence collected in this project suggests that this is likely to be so in other modes as well. Further, the findings from this project suggest that increased engagement and achievement in one mode, such as animation or dance, may in fact relate to improved engagement and achievement in another. Further research is needed to confirm this possible relationship.