Engagement in the Classroom

Research has shown that students learn better and retain more information when they are active with the material presented to them. I believe engagement happens best and most naturally when there is a foundation of trust and rapport. I look to incorporate opportunities for engaged learning in every course I teach. Of course, since the audience of students is constantly changing, so engagement requires continual improvement and adaptation. 

Engagement in the classroom can be thought of in two dimensions. The first is engagement with the student and the second is engagement with the material. Getting to know my students early in the semester helps me better engage them in the material. Already on the first day, I have students introducing themselves and interviewing each other with fun questions. I describe my own college/graduate experience, and how I got to where I am. I also like to say C. Kalinec-Craig‘s Rights of the Learner:

                1. You Have the Right to Be Confused
                2. You Have the Right to Claim a Mistake
                3. You Have the Right to Speak, Listen and be Heard
                4. You Have the Right to Write, Do, and Represent Only What Makes Sense to You

I cultivate a comfortable classroom atmosphere that fosters the courage to struggle with the material and obtain high-quality learning. On that first day, I also ask my students to set up a meeting with me during my office hours so that we can chat and get to know each other further. At these meetings, I ask about their interests, hopes, dreams, fears, and what they aim to get out of my class.

Implementing Class Houses

In fall 2022, I implemented class Houses in my linear algebra class, consisting mostly of sophomore and junior math majors. These Houses function similarly to those in Harry Potter, where students can earn House points by participating in lectures and winning review games. I also printed personalized stickers for each student and held a short sorting ceremony. Each House has a “founder” who is a historical figure that contributed to linear algebra: Friedrich Gauss, Emma Noether, Gottfried Leibniz, and Marjorie Lee Browne.

Implementing Active Breaks

Research has found that our attention spans are getting shorter, and it becomes ever more difficult to stay focused in class for longer than 10 minutes at a time. I have, thus, incorporated many different active breaks into my notes in order to break up the material and give students a chance to review what was just covered. Some examples are shown below. Other examples I have used are comparing notes with a partner, recalling important points from the previous lecture, and placing steps to a process in the correct order. I find active breaks allow students time to practice a concept with others or to find a misconception before moving on with new material and, more importantly, shifts the focus from instructor to student. 

Engagement in Calculus: POGIL and Biology Applications

To promote inquiry in my calculus courses, I use process oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) worksheets. Rather than beginning class by defining terms and laying out concepts, students work actively to discover the material and formulate a deeper understanding of the content themselves. These worksheets are highly structured and follow the learning cycle of Exploration, Concept Invention, and Application. Built into the experience is the support of communication and critical thinking skills. Roles can be assigned to the students in each group such as consensus builder, task manager, or spokesperson. I assign the roles by having students choosing different colored Uno cards. I can then use the colors to change roles part way through (like "the red cards are now the recorders"). This way, each student practices several roles and will hopefully instigate better participate.

Since many students who took my Calculus 1 sections were biology majors, I created numerous applications and examples from biology and chemistry that practice the concepts in the context of a  meaningful application. Previously I had difficulty motivating this audience, but incorporating these new applications related to biology has successfully and consistently engaged just about the entire class. See the Table below for student evaluations for Calculus 1.

Academic Games

One way I have made material more fun to review is by using academic games. I got the ideas from several colleagues over the years, and from several books (like Cooperative Learning for Higher Educational Faculty by Barbara Millis). The games I have created and used the most are crossword puzzles, Jeopardy (using powerpoint), and Quizo (based on Bingo). 

For the game Quizo, I buy a bag of M&M’s for students to use as place markers for the game board (and to eat). I sometimes buy small items or extra candy to use as prizes. However, I prefer not to require physical prizes every time; students should have fun just playing a game. In Calculus 1, I like to play Quizo as a review game for precalculus material. I set up four online assignments that comprise the review material (Trigonometry, Factoring/Fractions, Lines, and Function/Domain/Composition). Then I use a random number generator to choose a problem from either assignment, as shown below on the left alongside a Quizo card. 

The Oreo Experiment

In my statistics class, I have several small projects that are meant to give students the experience of doing statistics outside of the classroom. This means collecting data and analyzing what that data can tell us. I aim to use experiential activities like these to motivate students and give additional practice at the course material. One of the projects is to conduct a hypothesis test on whether Double Stuf Oreos have twice the filling as Traditional Oreos.

I buy a few packs of each type of Oreo and bring several portable scales to class. Students scrape the fillings into cups and weigh the filling using the scales. Below is a picture of some students using the scales. They then input that data into a Google Doc that is shared with the class. After the data collection is over, the analysis of conducting a hypothesis test is done together as a class. The project is for the students to each create a report of the results as a formal study (including sections for introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and recommendations). 

Engagement through Specifications Grading

A very effective way I have been able to engage students in all of my classes in recent years is through the implementation of specifications grading. The key feature of specifications grading is that students are allowed several attempts at every learning outcome, until they get it correct. I have found students will stay more engaged when they consistently work on their mistakes and learn how to grow as a learner along the way. By the end of my courses, many students describe how they “actually learn” the material, and that the revision process built in to the system puts less stress on the exams. The process of reassessments naturally involves learning from mistakes and has many students addressing their weaknesses and overcoming their challenges. Another benefit I have observed is that students lacking in prerequisite skills can learn the required background and become successful at demonstrating those skills later in the semester throughout the course learning outcomes. 

Engagement through Discord

Every semester since COVID, I set up a Discord server with a channel for each of my classes. Discord serves as a faster and more convenient way to communicate with my students; many of them are already familiar with it. Several times, students have audibly cried out “I can’t believe a professor is using Discord!”. Over Discord, I can send announcements and personal messages. I often send a message to a student that is not doing well during a certain week or after a recent assessment. I message to say let’s meet to go over their previous answers, and to schedule a time for a reassessment. Another benefit is that I am able to often have real-time conversations with students. My students can also communicate with each other, answer each other's questions, offer each other advice, etc.

Student Evaluations of Engagement

Below is a line graph showing the progression of the overall average response to the prompt "The professor effectively facilitated engaged learning in the course." The line graph shows those averages split between Elementary Statistics sections and all other courses. 

The question is rated from 1 - 7, with 7 being strongly agree, 4 being neutral, and 1 being strongly disagree. 

The orange line graph shows that the averages of responses for non-statistics courses have remained high and steady (save for the COVID semesters), while the averages coming from statistics shows a steep increase followed by a slight decrease (again likely due to the COVID semesters). After fall 2020, and as COVID restrictions were lifted, the average scores for my classes other than statistics began to increase while the averages for my statistics courses were somewhat lower than during COVID semesters. Once I was able to let students work together, I am not surprised most of my classes began to feel more engaged. 

However, after our department implemented the use of SPSS, I had to learn the program myself and was not yet able to also create engaging activities around that software. During the next two semesters, I indeed had less engaging activities for that reason. I have since been able to create several "SPSS labs" that serve as in-class opportunities for students to play with the software and practice the material I had covered on their own. I will continue to create these activities, which seem to be successful so far in engaging students, until I have one for each chapter I cover. I know from being a student myself that if one is not made to be interested, then it is more difficult to be intrinsically motivated to become better. I will continue creating activities that involve my students working together and incorporates material that my students are interested in. 

Below is a table of the student responses to the prompt "The professor effectively facilitated engaged learning in the course."  across each class and semester taught. The question is rated from 1 - 7, with 7 being strongly agree, 4 being neutral, and 1 being strongly disagree. 

I end this section with some comments I have received in my student evaluations that concern engagement in my courses.