Challenge
View the video below. It discusses how to shift students from engagement to empowerment.
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2:06 mins.
Student Engagement vs Student Empowerment
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"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" (The Glossary of Education Reform, 2013).
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Student empowerment focus is on highly engaging environments that often promote empowerment because they focus on student agency and ownership. When student ownership is added to student engagement, you have empowerment (Spencer, 2019).
Read and respond to the following scenario:
Mrs. Davis is a tenth-year teacher and she has been experiencing trouble with engaging students in the classroom activities. During a recent observation by the assistant principal of instruction, one of the concerns that was addressed was the lack of student engagement during the observation. Mrs. Davis admitted that she was struggling with trying to engage students in the classroom activities. She stated, “that she has done everything under the sun to engage these students but they are not interested”. What strategies would you suggest to Mrs. Davis to move students from compliance and engagement to empowerment? Empowerment is the top level of engagement where students get a chance to own their own learning.
This module was designed using the IRIS Star Legacy cycle (IRIS, 2005). A brief overview of each section of the PLM is described below:
Home
The home page includes information about the professional module. A worksheet is included on this page and can be downloaded before you begin working.
Perspectives and Resources
Goals and Objectives
Goals and objectives are aligned with the InTASC, ISTE, NBPTS, and TLMS standards and are applicable to the intended audience. These goals and objectives extend through all the PLM components. The approximate time for the PLM is approximately three hours.
Wrap-Up
The perspectives and resources section is designed around the PLM goals, objectives, and initial thoughts section.
This section includes user-friendly language and provides the learner with materials for further study and exploration.
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Initial Thoughts
The initial thoughts questions
prompt curiosity about the content
and allow the learner to explore and consider what they currently know about the content. They provide an organizational framework for further study in the perspectives and resources section of the PLM.
Assessment
The PLM assessment section includes questions that consider various cognitive processes and questions that can be answered through application of the material presented in perspectives and resources.
The wrap-up section summarizes information presented in the PLM and
asks the learner to reconsider and reflect on any changes in their responses to the first initial thoughts section.
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