Causes |
Interventions |
In order to understand how to solve the disengagement issue in the classroom, we must first gain a better understanding of its causes. Once we understand the causes, we can then work towards finding a solution.
According to Morin, there are four reasons that children become bored at school. She states that children are either under-challenged, under-motivated, under-connected, or under-skilled (2015). In this article, I found that students easily get bored when they don’t understand anything about the lesson or if the lesson is too easy for them. It also states that students will not be motivated to be engaged in the lesson if they do not feel as if it is important to them or if they feel uncomfortable in the classroom. Marzano’s book, “The Highly Engaged Classroom”, has chapters devoted to the four different aspects of a child that teachers should consider when thinking about student engagement. There is a chapter on emotions, one on interest, one on perceived importance, and one on perceptions of efficacy (2011). He believes that if a teacher does not take each of these things into consideration when planning a lesson, the students will become bored at some point in the lesson. There is also literature that states that students tend to become bored and disengaged if they are not given the opportunity to express themselves (Center for Mental Health in Schools, 2008). Another cause that I had come across was that students are less engaged in school when they do not have parental support towards their education. An obvious cause for students becoming disengaged is that the lesson is too organized and/or repetitive or that the teacher did not clearly state their expectations. Of course, causes will vary between classrooms because students vary in all classrooms. However, the underlying issue seems to remain the same. Students that become bored, or disengaged, in the classroom may have a more difficult time learning. |
For research done by Barberos, Gozalo, and Padayogdog, they hypothesized that "If teacher's teaching style would fit in a class and is used consistently, then students are motivated to learn" (n.d.).
The article, "Student Identity and Engagement in Elementary Schools," gives us an idea of that students want in the classroom. It states that they want to "solve real problems; engage with knowledge that matters; make a difference in the world; be respected; see how subjects are interconnected; learn from and with each other and people in their community" (2011). Vanderbilt University has a whole area on their website titled "Center for Teaching". Within this section, there is an article titled "Motivating Students" that explains the following strategies for motivating students in more detail:
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