As opinions differ about ‘engagement’ as a measure of effective learning, it is important for us to consider that engagement does actually need to be a factor in any sort of classroom, whether it is for learning or participation. My own personal motto has been that education is a two-way street: I can teach you whatever you need to know, but you need to take it on board and learn it.
In general, engagement in the classroom can be paramount to the failure or success of a lesson and therefore the failure or success of the children’s learning. I take this from my own personal experiences as a student and as a teacher. The point of view from this article comes from three major factors that I try to incorporate into my lessons wherever possible:
- Is it interesting?
- Is it relevant?
- Is it challenging?
Looking at the list, these all seem perfectly normal to ask of a lesson when teaching young children. However, if we start to dig deeper into the nuances of each question, that is when things start to unfold and the purpose of each question becomes more clear.
Is it interesting?
Let’s be honest: interest is subjective. What you find interesting might not be at all interesting to me and vice versa. This is where one of the many challenges of teaching lies – creating lessons, content and resources that we feel are going to excite the children and drive a passion that fosters a desire to engage and learn.
For me, history has always been a passion, but there have been many historical elements throughout my academic life that I found incredibly dull and turned me away from it. For example, during A-level history, we had two elements to the course: British history, which focused on events such as the Repeal of the Corn Laws, medicine and women, and then we had Tsarist Russia as the other element.