Engagement

Schlecty's work around engagement is one of the most thought provoking, yet simple frameworks for educators to use. As a teacher, it is easy to work towards compliance. Most of us have been taught that compliance is a good thing. We have seen this in our own lives as students. We have seen this in our personal lives. Compliance is almost always rewarded in some way, and so compliance is easy to do, easy to teach, and easy to reward. Yet, when all we work towards is compliance, we don't ever get to true levels of engagement.

What Schlechty explained so well is the difference between compliance and engagement. In his levels, the two factors that make the difference between whether a student is compliant or engaged are the verbs commitment and attention. 
So we need to ask ourselves;

* Are we setting up our students to be physically and emotionally prepared to give their attention and commitment to the learning process?

* Do you (or your class) have positive rituals and habits that lead to sustainable energy and engagement?

Students in an engaged learning environment have high attention and high commitment because of their intrinsic motivation and desire to actively learn, create, and contribute to the overall experience.

Students who are strategically compliant or ritually compliant may have levels of attention and commitment, but the attention and commitment have been forced by extrinsic factors (grades, rewards, etc).

These differences apply to us as teachers, leaders, and parents as well as our students. So the question is, have you reached high levels of engagement in your classroom? What will it take to get there?