‘One thing that stood out for us over the course of the research study was how much the students truly valued the opportunity to share their insights and experiences as learners.’ In this 3-part series on student engagement, Dr Amy Berry and Dr Kellie Picker are sharing insights from their Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) study Student perspectives on engaging in learning at school. In part one, students shared their top tips on how teachers could help them get more engaged in learning. Part 2 explored what it means to be a good learner. In today’s final instalment, the authors share 3 questions they posed to the focus groups who participated in the study, and the insights the students offered on the topic of disengagement.
It is no secret that disengagement is on the rise in our schools, it is starting earlier and the familiar pattern of declining engagement as students move through school shows no signs of changing. Despite considerable attention at the research, policy and practice levels, disengagement remains a persistent and pervasive challenge for schools and teachers.
When teachers describe disengagement, they often see it as the opposite to engagement. For example, they might describe disengagement as ‘not being on task’ or ‘not participating’ in classroom learning experiences.
Similarly, some describe engagement as the absence of any signs of disengagement. That is, an engaged student is one who is ‘not wasting time’ or ‘not disrupting the lesson’. While it may be useful to spot disengagement when it is happening in the classroom, understanding the root causes for the disengagement is what is needed if we want to help the student engage and learn.
As teachers, we can (and do) make decisions based on what we think the problem is. Sometimes we get it right, and sometimes we don’t. If we want to support students who are struggling to engage in learning, asking them about what is making it hard is a better option than assuming we know what is going on for that student.
During the ACER Student perspectives on engaging in learning at school study, we wanted to know what students thought about disengagement and about things that demotivate them during learning at school. We asked the 158 students who participated in the focus groups the following 3 questions, and they had a lot to say about these important topics.
Question 1: What is it like when you don’t want to do the work or be a part of the learning happening in the classroom?
These are the common disengagement behaviours and feelings the students reported:
- Talking with friends
- Looking for reasons to leave the room
- Fiddling
- Daydreaming
- Thinking about other things
Feeling like forced to do something that you don’t want to do, or something that doesn’t interest you most.
Torturous. It feels torturous. It looks like fiddling with objects, head up, confused, watching the clock, getting up.
When I'm trying to do something. And there’s a teacher like constantly coming up to me, oh how much have you done? How much you've done? Are you close to finishing? It's just like, it makes me uncomfortable. Makes me not want to do the work.
When I don’t really like the subject, I’ll just do the bare minimum to pass but I’m not going to really put the effort in.
Question 2: What do other children do when they don’t want to be a part of the learning or do the work?
These are the common disengagement behaviours the students have observed:
- Interrupting or distracting others
- Moving around the room
- Mucking around
- Shouting or yelling
- Letting others do the work
I’ve seen so much fake reading, not so much fake writing. It’s like the teacher walks around the room, and when they get right near the person, instead of chatting they quickly put the book up above their face, they’re reading.
Walk for a drink, get something from their bag, have a chat, then they like write a couple of words then they ask to go to the toilet. They just try to avoid a bunch of ways; they try to minimise their time of working.
While the teacher is talking, some kids show off, trying to get a laugh, making weird comments.
They groan and say, ‘Oh, why do I have to do this?’ Sometimes they get upset, sometimes they cry.
Last week we were doing spelling and someone got frustrated, and because they were frustrated, they threw their book on the floor.
Question 3: Tell me about a time in class when you did not want to be a part of the learning. Why?
These are common reasons why students might disengage during learning:
- Feeling distracted
- Frustrated and angry
- Overwhelmed and stressed
- Unsuccessful
- Feeling like it is too hard or too challenging
Sometimes I feel like I’ve learned this so many times; why do we have to learn it again? So, I feel a bit frustrated and think ‘can we do something else for once?’
Most people don’t know this but for me big events like athletics and school excursions like the museum, they get me very anxious.
If it’s too easy I find it too boring because I just know it and I prefer it when it’s harder because it actually gives me a challenge.
I feel like you can have a teacher who's like super slack and like doesn't even like keep up with like whether you're doing your work or not. And then there's like the other side where your teacher will kind of like force you to only do work, and you’re not allowed to have fun. You're not allowed to talk to anyone. I feel like they're both kind of the same thing in different ways. One doesn’t care and so you get no work done. The other gives you no freedom and that makes us not want to do the work.
Managing disengagement
Disengagement is not a student thing; it is a people thing. We all experience periods of low motivation and disengagement, but some of us are better equipped to manage those periods than others.
One way that we can support our students to build their capacity for managing disengagement, is to have regular conversations about the root causes and use this as an opportunity to problem-solve with them.
One thing that stood out for us over the course of the research study was how much the students truly valued the opportunity to share their insights and experiences as learners. This was true of all age groups from Prep to year 12. These insights really helped to deepen our understanding of learner engagement and gave us new ideas about how to better support students to actively engage in learning at school.
As you can see, the questions we asked in our focus groups were very simple and adaptable to different age groups. You might like to try using some of the questions as a prompt for discussion with your students to better understand the disengagement challenges and roadblocks they face during learning. While you are at it, you might also ask them for their suggestions and ideas on how to tackle these challenges.
Consider the 3 questions posed by Dr Amy Berry and Dr Kellie Picker in this article. Can you use them to spark discussions in your classroom about disengagement? How will this help you to better understand your students and the roadblocks they face in their learning?
How do you approach issues of disengagement in your classroom? Do you have strategies that help to mitigate these issues? What have you found to be most effective for your context and cohort?
