Optimal Learning Environments To Promote Student Engagement

Optimal Learning Environments to Promote Student Engagement analyzes the psychological, social, and academic phenomena comprising engagement, framing it as critical to learning and development. Drawing on positive psychology, flow studies, and theories of motivation, the book conceptualizes engagement as a learning experience, explaining how it occurs (or not) and how schools can adapt to maximize it among adolescents. Examples of empirically supported environments promoting engagement are provided, representing alternative high schools, Montessori schools, and extracurricular programs. The book identifies key innovations including community-school partnerships, technology-supported learning, and the potential for engaging learning opportunities during an expanded school day. Among the topics covered: Engagement as a primary framework for understanding educational and motivational outcomes. Measuring the malleability, complexity, multidimensionality, and sources of engagement. The relationship between engagement and achievement. Supporting and challenging: the instructor’s role in promoting engagement. Engagement within and beyond core academic subjects. Technological innovations on the engagement horizon. Optimal Learning Environments to Promote Student Engagement is an essential resource for researchers, professionals, and graduate students in child and school psychology; social work; educational psychology; positive psychology; family studies; and teaching/teacher education.

Student engagement happens as a result of a teacher’s careful planning and execution of specific strategies. This self-study text provides in-depth understanding of how to generate high levels of student attention and engagement. Using the suggestions in this book, every teacher can create a classroom environment where engagement is the norm, not the exception.

Reimagine your school community. This practical guidebook will help you shift your mindset of online and blended learning from “backup plan” to unprecedented opportunity for rich connections and high-level learning. New and veteran teachers alike will gain insight on how to build in-person and online relationships with students and coworkers to achieve a learning community that supports social-emotional learning, equitable and inclusive instruction, and academic success. Educators of hybrid learning environments will: Understand why relationship-building is fundamental to student success and gain best practices for establishing this foundation Discover new blended, online, and in-person strategies for strengthening connections with your diverse students Gain strategies for offering instruction that is affirming, representative of our diverse world, and rooted in equity Be empowered to think critically about and to change systems currently in place that limit students’ ability to connect and thrive Choose strategies that fit your teaching style from the myriad of vibrant experiences contributed by educators around the world Contents: Preface: Our Journeys to Blended Education Introduction: People-Centered Approaches to Teaching Part I: Reimagining the Online Classroom Chapter 1: Reimagining School as a Global Community Project Chapter 2: Cultivating Strengths-Based Approaches for Inclusion, Support, and Counseling Chapter 3: Fostering Relationships Through Connection-Based Feedback Part II: Inclusive Practices: Diversity and Equity in the Online Classroom Chapter 4: Centering Student Stories Chapter 5: Honoring Multilingual and Multicultural Learners Chapter 6: Accelerating Opportunities for Gifted and Talented Students Epilogue Appendix Glossary References and Resources Index

Practical Strategies and Winning Techniques to Engage and Enhance Student Learning The revised and updated second edition of Student Engagement Techniques is a much-needed guide to engaging today's information-overloaded students. The book is a comprehensive resource that offers college teachers a dynamic model for engaging students and includes over one hundred tips, strategies, and techniques that have been proven to help teachers across all disciplines motivate and connect with their students. This edition will provide a deeper understanding of what student engagement is, demonstrate new strategies for engaging students, uncover implementation strategies for engaging students in online learning environments, and provide new examples on how to implement these techniques into STEM fields. "Student Engagement Techniques is among a handful of books—several of which are in this series!—designed specifically to help instructors, regardless of experience, create the conditions that make meaningful, engaged learning not just possible but highly probable." —Michael Palmer, Ph.D., Director, Center for Teaching Excellence, Professor, General Faculty, University of Virginia "This practical guide to motivating and engaging students reads like a quite enjoyable series of conversations held over coffee with skilled colleagues. It has been met with delight from every faculty member and graduate instructor that we've shared the book with!" —Megan L. Mittelstadt, Ph.D., Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, The University of Georgia "Student Engagement Techniques belongs in the hands of 21st century instructors and faculty developers alike. Its research-based, specific, yet broadly applicable strategies can increase student engagement in face-to-face and online courses in any discipline." —Jeanine A. Irons, Ph.D., Faculty Developer for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, Syracuse University "This book is an essential resource for faculty seeking to better engage with their students. Anyone seeking a clear, research-based, and actionable guide needs a copy of Student Engagement Techniques on their shelf!" —Michael S. Harris, Ed.D., Associate Professor of Higher Education, Director, Center for Teaching Excellence, Southern Methodist University

Today's students need to be fully prepared for successful learning and living in the information age. This book provides a practical, flexible framework for designing Guided Inquiry that helps achieve that goal. Guided Inquiry prepares today's learners for an uncertain future by providing the education that enables them to make meaning of myriad sources of information in a rapidly evolving world. The companion book, Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century, explains what Guided Inquiry is and why it is now essential now. This book, Guided Inquiry Design: A Framework for Inquiry in Your School, explains how to do it. The first three chapters provide an overview of the Guided Inquiry design framework, identify the eight phases of the Guided Inquiry process, summarize the research that grounds Guided Inquiry, and describe the five tools of inquiry that are essential to implementation. The following chapters detail the eight phases in the Guided Inquiry design process, providing examples at all levels from pre-K through 12th grade and concluding with recommendations for building Guided Inquiry in your school. The book is for pre-K–12 teachers, school librarians, and principals who are interested in and actively designing an inquiry approach to curricular learning that incorporates a wide range of resources from the library, the Internet, and the community. Staff of community resources, museum educators, and public librarians will also find the book useful for achieving student learning goals.

Understanding the factors that encourage young people to become active agents in their own learning is critical. Positive psychology is one lens that can be used to investigate the factors that facilitate a student’s sense of agency and active school engagement. In the second edition of this groundbreaking handbook, the editors draw together the latest work on the field, identifying major issues and providing a wealth of descriptive knowledge from renowned contributors. Major topics include: the ways that positive emotions, traits, and institutions promote school achievement and healthy social and emotional development; how specific positive-psychological constructs relate to students and schools and support the delivery of school-based services; and the application of positive psychology to educational policy making. With thirteen new chapters, this edition provides a long-needed centerpiece around which the field can continue to grow, incorporating a new focus on international applications of the field.

The delivery of quality education to students relies heavily on the actions of an institution’s administrative staff. Effective teaching strategies allow for the continued progress of modern educational initiatives. Student Engagement and Participation: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications provides comprehensive research perspectives on the multi-faceted issues of student engagement and involvement within the education sector. Including innovative studies on learning environments, self-regulation, and classroom management, this multi-volume book is an ideal source for educators, professionals, school administrators, researchers, and practitioners in the field of education.

The Handbook of Positive Psychology in Schools offers the most current and comprehensive insights into how positive psychology principles provide a framework for young people to become active agents in their own learning. The third edition of this groundbreaking volume assembles the latest global research identifying fundamental assets—hope, optimism, gratitude, self-efficacy, emotional regulation, among others—that support students’ learning and well-being. Chapters examining social-ecological perspectives on classroom quality and school climate provide best practice guidance on schoolwide policies and practices. These 35 new chapters explore positive psychology’s ongoing influence and advances on prevention, intervention, and assessment practices in schools.