In the Service of Student Engagement: Teachers Going "All In"

• In Event: 56.023 - Bridging the Research-Practice Divide: Designing and Implementing Project-Based Learning in Advanced Placement Physics

Abstract

Objective
This study examines the role of teacher engagement as a pedagogical practice and how that relates to fostering student engagement.

Perspective
PBL offers unique opportunities for student engagement (Darling-Hammond et al., 2008), an important component for academic success. Yet, a PBL curriculum doesn’t necessarily result in an engaging learning environment, even if well researched structures (e.g. collaborative group work, authentic projects) are present. Furthermore, while PBL has the potential to be motivating for students, the pedagogies that foster engagement are both complex and not well documented (Barron and Darling Hammond, 2008).

To uncover the engagement potentials of PBL, teachers must work toward disrupting the grammar of schooling through the creative production of new, sometimes vulnerable, ways of being in the classroom. When teachers go “all in” with their students they communicate that it is not just school as usual. Being “all in” is distinguishable from teachers who periodically perform (e.g., occasionally dress up for an activity). Instead, it means teachers consistently, in big and small ways, frame themselves in the learning environment by taking on the role as a co-participator/co-learner. It means taking risks alongside their students, and taking these opportunities, seriously and on a daily basis.

Methods and Data
We developed a comparative case study of two AP Physics teachers in the Pacific Northwest. Both teachers had five or more years of teaching experience, were passionate about their work, and had strong content and pedagogical knowledge. Using teacher and student semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and student fishbowls, we sought to qualitatively compare how each teacher, in different ways, went “all in” with his students and the impact that had on student engagement in learning.

Results
Each teacher demonstrated a creative practice of vulnerability and playfulness within the structures of the project. Teacher 1 used a practice of transparency by framing his own learning process and his own uncertainty for his students. He believes that developing trusting relationships with students is the single most important factor that impacts learning. Teacher 2 encouraged risk taking by getting into role himself and fostering that role in small but significant ways throughout each project, generating opportunities for his students to remain engaged in the PBL curriculum and their work. Both teachers added to the creative production of new ways of being in their classroom that allowed students to do the same.

Conclusions and Significance
This research adds to what we consider “PBL pedagogy.” It demonstrates how teachers, with greater teaching experience and content expertise, creatively and actively generate new roles for themselves that elicit student engagement through often seemingly minor but important pedagogical moves that allow them to be “all in” with their students, without taking away from the time spent on content. Moreover, the creative production of new practices requires a kind of vulnerability that may be uncomfortable for teachers but is worthy of further analysis. Finally, we urge further exploration in the interaction between content expertise and the confidence to improvise in the classroom.

Authors

• Sarah Ward, University of Washington

• Carol Margaret Adams, Seattle University