An activity may be engrossing to a student without being intellectually valuable if it isn't connected to what they actually want to know.' Here's one way school could work better for kids.
Like many others, I've often used"engaging" as a kind of shorthand for a good lesson and"engaged" to signify the desired student reaction. But with the help of some pointed observations from other thinkers, I've been taking a closer look and have come to believe there are two distinct problems with the concept., like a number of other terms, has been co-opted by traditionalists and all but drained of meaning.
Consider this provocative observation by Susan Engel, a developmental psychologist:"A teacher can be talking about things that captivate the students, and the students can be deeply interested in a topic—quite engaged in a discussion or activity. But that, in and of itself, doesn't mean the children are asking questions, or that their questions reflect curiosity.":"'Engagement' in an experience doesn't necessarily mean it's either useful or meaningful.
Other thinkers, meanwhile, have drawn a straightforward distinction between what's engaging and what'sengaging. Play, for example, is enjoyable by definition but doesn't necessarily result in meaningful learning .This concern seems to come from a different direction than Engel and Linn's caution.
But when you look at what actually promotes cognitive engagement, you end up with something quite close to what Engel and Linn are talking about. Research has found that students who are cognitively engaged are motivated by a desire for"task mastery"—they really want to figure stuff out—which, in turn, is promoted by curiosity and autonomy. It's also distinguished by the
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