Principles of Engagement

Student engagement is tied deeply to motivation and active learning. In a recent (September 2024) advice guide published in The Chronicle of Higher Education titled, "How to Make Your Teaching More Engaging," Sarah Rose Cavanah provides an argument of why academics should care about student engagement, explains their 4 key principles of student engagement, and introduces some specific suggestions for applying each principles into in-person, hybrid, and online classrooms. While you can read the article for free with your GVSU account, we've shared the four principles Cavanah introduced below:

    ► Principle No. 1: Cognitive Resources Are Limited. Emotion Trumps

    ► Principle No. 2: Your Persona and Performance Matter, Like It or Not

    ► Principle No. 3: We Are Intensely Social Creatures, Motivated by Community

    ► Principle No. 4: Stories Are Our ‘Most Natural Form of Thought’

"Student engagement is the mental state students are in while learning, representing the interaction of feeling and thinking" (Barkley and Major, 6).

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

"Engagement means setting up challenges for students that are meaningful beyond getting a grade, challenges which encourage risk without unduly punishing failure so they may experience the pleasure of resiliency and be enthused about trying again." (Warner 2016).

Articles

Frymier, Ann Bainbridge, and Marian L. Houser. “The Role of Oral Participation in Student Engagement.” Communication Education, vol. 65, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 83–104. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2015.1066019.

Knight, Jennifer K., and William B. Wood. “Teaching More by Lecturing Less.” Cell Biology Education, vol. 4, no. 4, 2005, pp. 298–310. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.1187/05-06-0082.

Warner, John. We Have an Engagement Crisis, Not a “Grit” Deficit. 2016, https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/we-have-engagement-crisis-not-grit-deficit.

Yorke, Mantz. “The Development and Initial Use of a Survey of Student ‘Belongingness’, Engagement and Self-Confidence in UK Higher Education.” Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, vol. 41, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 154–66. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2014.990415.

Books

Barkley, Elizabeth F., and Claire H. Major. Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty. Jossey-Bass, 2020, https://research.ebsco.com/c/6l5vh5/search/details/cby7opeo7v?q=Student%20Engagement%20Techniques:%20A%20Handbook%20for%20College%20Faculty

Lovett, Marsha C., et al. How Learning Works: Eight Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. 2nd ed., Jossey-Bass, 2023, https://research.ebsco.com/c/6l5vh5/search/results?schemaId=search&q=how+learning+works.

Webpages

Articles in a free publication (Faculty Focus) from the creators of The Teaching Professor:

Six Things Faculty Can Do to Promote Student Engagement

Five Tips for Fostering Learning in the Classroom 

Building Student Engagement: 15 Strategies for the College Classroom 

From the University of Michigan's CRTL:

Teaching for Retention in Science, Engineering, and Math Disciplines: A Guide for Faculty 

From the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA):

Teaching for Cognitive Engagement