Student Engagement - why is it important for all stakeholders in Education?

The Glossary for Education Reform defines Student Engagement as:

"In education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education."

In a world where Inquiry based learning and authentic learning experiences are promoted by leaders in the industry, student engagement is paramount to the success of programs, learning experiences and most importantly the students themselves. Currently, a group of grade 11 IBDP Business Management students at my school are working on a Marketing Plan for a major Qatari company. The assignment was designed using the GRASPS model and requires students to Inquire about what a marketing plan is before they can develop and pitch a real plan to a real company representative. Students were given a learning resource and a timeline which broke the marketing plan into stages for consumption and action. In the initial stages, teachers witnessed that students were choosing not to use the learning resource but still attempt to produce the initial stages of the marketing plan. Formative assessments demonstrated to the students and teachers that the understanding of related concepts was limited as was the ability to use market plan terminology. A discussion about why the results were limited revealed that the students were trying to complete the task based on prior knowledge only. Fortunately, these concerns were realized early and it was expressed to students again what the learning resource was provided for. While the ideology of inquiry based learning is exciting and appealing, it is the degree of engagement in the learning opportunity that will determine if the experience is successful. One thing I have learned from this is that many high school aged students still require some extrinsic motivation to be engaged regardless of the opportunity or experience that is presented to them. Perhaps with a little more extrinsic motivation and guidance, intrinsic motivation will be activated. With increased engagement the teachers, the company and ultimately the students can benefit collectively. More to come...........