Summary
In this professional development, participants explore elements of student engagement and examples of positive classroom culture. Next, they participate in a variety of engaging instructional strategies as learners and gain experience modifying and/or scaffolding these strategies to support their own students' needs. Finally, participants reflect on the relationship between classroom culture and student engagement.
Essential Questions
What does positive classroom culture look like?
How can we modify and scaffold strategies to support meaningful learning experiences?
Learning Goals
In this session participants will:
Describe indicators of student engagement.
Connect student engagement to positive classroom culture.
Adapt instructional strategies to support student engagement.
Snapshot
Engage
Participants illustrate their understanding of positive classroom culture by completing the Painting a Picture strategy.
Explore
Participants engage in an Always, Sometimes, or Never True strategy about what student engagement looks like in the classroom.
Explain
Participants watch a video about the power of positive school culture and reflect upon how positive classroom culture supports students’ learning.
Extend
Participants engage in a series of instructional strategies that support student engagement.
Evaluate
Participants practice modifying and scaffolding instructional strategies to meet their own students’ needs.
Materials List
Presentation Slides
Always, Sometimes, or Never True handout (attached; one per participant)
30-Second Expert handout (attached; one per participant)
Strategy Harvest handout (attached; one per participant)
Poster paper (optional)
Scratch paper (optional)
Markers
Sticky notes
Engage
Use the attached Presentation Slides to follow along with this PD. Begin the session by introducing participants to the essential questions and session objectives on slides 3-4.
Go to slide 5. This slide is animated to display prompts one at a time. Ask participants to discuss with a small group their answers to the question: How would you describe your classroom culture? Depending on the size of the groups, give participants 3-5 minutes to discuss.
Reveal the next bullet point on the slide and ask participants to complete the Painting a Picture strategy to illustrate what classroom culture looks like, based on their small group discussion. Ask for volunteers to share their drawings with the whole group.
Reveal the last bullet point on the slide. Ask participants to share out ways in which they build classroom culture.
Explore
Go to slide 6 and distribute the Always, Sometimes, or Never True handout. Ask participants to complete the activity independently. After they have had time to respond to each prompt, have them discuss their answers with a small group.
Next, bring the whole group back together to discuss their responses. Rather than going through the whole list, only focus on the few prompts you selected in advance. Ask the participants to share out by a show of hands whether they chose always, sometimes, or never for each statement, then have a few volunteers from each response share out their reasoning. In the interest of time, it may be most efficient to focus discussion around the sometimes responses or the response represented by the fewest participants.
Before moving on, highlight any meaningful alignment between the Always, Sometimes, or Never True reflections aligned with the ways participants described positive classroom culture and their approaches to building it.
Explain
Continue to slide 7. Tell participants that positive classroom culture supports the broader experience of students within their schools. Then play the video The Power of Positive School Culture. After the video, ask participants to volunteer any thoughts they have about what they just watched, especially as it relates to the work they do in their classrooms.
Go to slide 8 and give participants a moment to read the prompt: How does classroom culture support strategies and activities that go outside your students’ comfort zone? Ask for volunteers to share out their reflections. Tell participants that the way we scaffold and modify strategies to support the specific learners in our classrooms helps reinforce positive classroom culture.
Extend
Go to slide 9 and tell participants that they will now explore some specific modifying and scaffolding strategies that can support and are supported by positive classroom culture. In each activity, they will participate as a learner, so they can later reflect on what they might need to account for when facilitating students in their own classes.
After completing the strategy activities, go to slide 15. Present participants with the two prompts and give them a few minutes to reflect. Then ask for several volunteers to share out their thoughts and questions. Highlight responses which connect back to the previous discussions of classroom culture.
Evaluate
Distribute the Strategy Harvest handout and display slide 16. To wrap up the professional development, tell participants they will now have some time to reflect on the strategies they experienced in the session. Up to this point the conversation has been primarily about how the strategies fit into a positive classroom culture, but this is their opportunity to consider how to facilitate them effectively. Ask participants to consider their experience engaging in the strategies and determine what modifications or scaffolds they might need to build into the activities to be effective in their classrooms.
Give participants time individually or in small groups to fill out the Strategy Harvest. Consider asking for a few volunteers to share out their ideas before wrapping up the session.
Ask participants to complete a session evaluation if applicable.
Research Rationale
Behavioral engagement is defined and measured as a student’s effort in learning and participation in school activities (Birch & Ladd, 1997; Lam et al., 2014). Students who maintain their schoolwork and partake consistently in extra-curricular activities are deemed as having high behavioral engagement (Lam et al., 2014). These students are continuously motivated to do well because of positive feedback from their teachers and peers through these activities (Miller et. al, 1996). Classrooms best-suited to achievement are organized and well-structured (Poysa, et al., 2019) but at the same time allow space for student autonomy (Jang, Reeve, & Deci, 2010). Teachers can strike a balance between structure and autonomy by communicating in noncontrolling and informational ways, getting to know students and acknowledging their different perspectives. Offering clear and detailed expectations, instructions, and feedback for improvement are also important (Jang, et al., 2010; Martin & Collie, 2019).
The 21st-century student needs opportunities to critically think, collaborate, problem-solve, and relate knowledge to experiences outside the classroom (Lombardi, 2007). It is unreasonable to expect students to develop necessary 21st-century skills in a traditional classroom because, typically, lessons designed in these environments do not create opportunities for students to practice high levels of critical thinking, collaboration, or problem-solving, nor do they allow practice in connecting new information to experiences outside the classroom setting. By using instructional strategies that promote authentic and inquiry-based teaching, students can gain more autonomy and meet high expectations for learning.
Resources
Birch, S. H., & Ladd, G. W. (1997). The teacher-child relationship and children's early school adjustment. Journal of School Psychology, 35(1), 61-79.
Jang, H., Reeve, J., Deci, E.L. (2010). Engaging students in learning activities: It is not autonomy support or structure but autonomy support and structure. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(3), 588-600.
K20 Center. (n.d.). 30-second expert. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/1048
K20 Center. (n.d.). Always, sometimes, or never true. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/145
K20 Center. (n.d.). Commit and toss. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/119
K20 Center. (n.d.). Fold the line. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/171
K20 Center. (n.d.). Magnetic statements. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/166
K20 Center. (n.d.). Painting a picture. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/1331
Lam, S. F., Jimerson, S., Wong, B. P., Kikas, E., Shin, H., Veiga, F. H., ... & Stanculescu, E. (2014). Understanding and measuring student engagement in school: The results of an international study from 12 countries. School Psychology Quarterly, 29(2), 213.
Lombardi, M. M. (2007). Authentic learning for the 21st century: An overview (Report No. 1). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative.
Martin, A.J., & Collie, R.J. (2019). Teacher-student relationships and students’ engagement in high school: Does the number of negative and positive relationships with teachers matter? Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(5), 861-876.
Miller, R. B., Greene, B. A., Montalvo, G. P., Ravindran, B., & Nichols, J. D. (1996). Engagement in academic work: The role of learning goals, future consequences, pleasing others, and perceived ability. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 21(4), 388-422.
Poysa, S., Vasalamip, K., Muotka, J., Marja-Kristiina, L., Poikkeus, A.M., & Nurmi, J.E. (2019). The British Psychological Society. The British Psychological Society, 89, 374-392.