‘The word “educator” is composed of the root, duc, duce, which means lead; the prefix e- which means out; the suffix -ate, which means the act of; and the suffix -or, which means one who does. An educator is one who is engaged in the act of leading students out of ignorance.
‘Thank you for allowing me to read this; it makes me wish I could go back into the classroom and get it right!’
Jane Elliott, anti-racism activist and educator,
creator of ‘Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes’ exercise
A book such as this is a team effort. I have had the good fortune of being surrounded by so many magnificent and inspiring educators from a very young age. I too am fortunate to be supported by people who continue to challenge and support me so that I can do what I do best.
A heartfelt thank you must be given to some of those who have helped me along the way:
Paul Kidson, Don Northey, Ross Lowe, Howard Wells, Frida Hristofski, Brad Mitchell, Lisa Swadling, Tahlea Taylor, Barbara and Doug Clarke, Renee Gare, Amanda Morphett and, of course, Nina and Max Heinecke.
To Hamish, my superhero
First published in 2016 by Tim Heinecke
© Tim Heinecke 2016
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the author.
A catalogue entry for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.
Project management and text design by Michael Hanrahan Publishing
Cover design by Peter Reardon
Disclaimer
The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.
ISBN: 978-0-9925743-0-7
Introduction: What is student engagement?
How this book came to be
PART I: MOVING OUT OF THE PAST
The purpose of education
Preparing for the journey
Finding a better way
A better way of interacting with students
Nurturing the whole child
Counteracting ignorance and fear
‘Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education’
The world is changing and so must our schools
Our schools are struggling
You have the power to open doors
What the future holds
PART II: MEANINGFUL STRATEGIES TO INSPIRE AND MOTIVATE YOUR STUDENTS
Engagement element 1: Aesthetics
Is your classroom conducive to learning?
Working with what you have
Finding inspiration
Improving classroom aesthetics
Engagement element 2: Belonging
People are social beings
Creating belonging
Disengaged students
Engagement element 3: Cognitive willingness
You were born with it
Creating change
A power that will change their lives
The fear of failure
Instilling cognitive willingness in your students
Engagement element 4: Dialogue
It’s a new frontier
Promoting collegiality and engagement
The importance of students’ names
Providing feedback about and to students
Quality sound versus unnecessary noise
Creating local heroes
Engagement element 5: Investment
An investment more valuable than dollars and cents
Money is no guarantee of success
The Santa Claus approach
Ways to invest yourself
Engagement element 6: Systems
The importance of good systems
For want of a nail
It’s a team effort
Meeting students’ and teachers’ needs
Optimising systems
Putting it all together
Dark and damp spaces work well for mushrooms
Join the dots and create the connection
Please, sir, I want some more
Revising for the exam
Give them an inch and they’ll show you a mile
A well-oiled machine
Mediocre to marvellous in a moment
A lesson in physics
The passage that almost missed the cut
Books and research articles
Introduction
Student engagement is among the most commonly used phrases in schools today, but what does it actually mean? How do we quantify student engagement and how do we create an environment that fosters engagement? These are not simple questions to answer. The enormity of expectation placed upon educators combined with the individuality of every young person who comes to be educated makes finding a definition a very difficult task. Take into consideration the degree to which this concept is internalised and we are even further away from finding an answer. Measuring student engagement is not as simple as getting students into an examination hall and making them sit a test. What’s for certain is that student engagement is not a completely compliant class that jumps when the teacher demands and sits perfectly still at every other moment; besides, could you think of anything worse?
Engaged students laugh, work collegially and plan for future challenges. These students have a plan in their heads that they are working towards, while working in the present on learning new concepts and ideas. They make observable progress and they are active participants in their educational journey. They are not afraid to take risks.
Deeply engaged learners display:
• a loss of time and space when involved with a task
• total immersion in the present
• a deeper understanding of a range of factors that contribute towards a possible solution
• an investment in their own education
• resilience to inevitable obstacles
• persistence to move to deeper knowledge.
It is therefore an absolute must that we as informed educators should be striving towards an environment that allows all of our students to experience this ideal state.
The reflective teacher knows the one certainty about engaged learners is that they are the most likely to succeed both at school and beyond. It is without doubt that student engagement is one of the major determinants of success. The concept of student engagement is a binding force that allows a wide variety of elements within the learning environment to come alive.
So how do we get our students to achieve this state more frequently in our classrooms? How do we ensure our classroom contains students who:
• immerse themselves completely in a specific area of study
• become engrossed in new challenges
• search for new understandings with active minds and busy bodies
• lose sense of time and space as they immerse themselves in new learnings?
Read on, my friend, as we will go through lots of easy-to-implement strategies that produce many more light-bulb moments as the young people in your care continue along their own learning journey.
Give it everything,
Have fun, and
Make a difference.
Tim Heinecke
September 2016
‘Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.’
Socrates
What does a kid who disliked school do after graduation? Become a teacher, of course! I loved the idea of school, but found the road to obtaining an education was littered with obstacles that derailed my learning journey.
Here is the crucial, overarching premise: our kids get one chance at being seven years old; they get one year to live life as a thirteen-year-old. Our young people deserve the best possible start, and a major part of that is to ensure their teachers are the greatest they could ever be. Lethargic or ineffective teachers have no place in education; they must not be tolerated. Every child is worthy of an inspirational educational leader who is responsible for the direction of their learning. As a progressive society we owe it to our kids to make the most of every moment of their early years.
It took 20 years of teaching for that light-bulb moment to arrive but all of a sudden I realised what was missing from my own experience. I was working in a school that was in dire need of something different, a monumental change. The school was run-down both physically and culturally. Students were disenfranchised and didn’t see the benefit in putting effort into their education. There were regular, vicious acts of violence, and suspension levels were well above those at similar surrounding schools. It seemed a point of pride among the students to perpetuate the school’s negative reputation. Understandably, the teaching staff found it difficult; however, to their credit, there was a determined spirit of positivity.
With determination and hard work, over the course of a few years, the school community managed to completely change their expectations and previous understandings, and set out on a new path that opened up greater teaching and learning opportunities for everyone. Levels of satisfaction among all – staff, students and parents – markedly increased, and post-schooling options made dramatic and measurable improvements.
It was through working with these types of teachers and some amazing educational leaders that my thoughts about student engagement started to crystalise. The pieces of the puzzle began to fit, and finally it all made sense to me. Pedagogical triumphs and failures connected in a way that enabled me to see what I missed as a student, the essential elements that would have had me engaged. It all clicked, and suddenly I saw the components that maximised the opportunities for engagement for every child.
This book came to be in order to explain how educators can be the most powerful weapon in changing the lives of each and every one of their students. It was also written to offer simple yet incredibly effective ways to ensure that students engage with their education, for these should be some of the most exciting times in a young person’s life. Perhaps there can be no greater gift given to a child than a fulfilling educational experience.
Of course, you can read this book from cover to cover, however I am certain you will get more out of it by taking the time necessary to let the ideas germinate in your mind. Make the time to implement the suggestions that resonate with you and your students because the power comes from putting these ideas into action.
Part I
‘Teaching is the one profession that creates all others.’
Author unknown
Prior to heading off on any trip, whether it be to the local shops or to the other side of the globe, a course is plotted. It is important to have an idea in our mind of where we are heading and the best way possible to get to our destination. Now that doesn’t mean it has to be the most direct route – the journey is best enjoyed when it correlates with the intentions of the adventure. It is also easier to pack appropriately when we know where we are off to. Taking a ski jacket to Bora Bora is unnecessary baggage and a swim suit in a Swedish winter will do nothing to protect us from the cold.
Simply sitting in the driver’s seat is not enough. Remaining idle without direction is not going to get you to your destination. You could listen to the radio or fiddle with the electric windows, but you’re not going to get anywhere. That’s why, before you even open the car door, you have formulated an idea about where you’re going and how you’ll get there. Even relying on sat-nav to fill in the finer details of the route, you have the destination in mind before you get into the car.
In the same way, informed educators map out the journey that lies ahead for their students. Teaching programs, scope and sequence, curriculum documentation, individual learning plans, wellbeing policies: a wide range of planning must be done in advance and referred to regularly to ensure that everyone remains on the right track. Being aware of what’s ahead means you are ready to slow down or speed up – or even to change course altogether – to safely arrive at your destination at the right time.
In the same way we look ahead when booking a holiday in order to make the most of our time away, there are inarguable advantages to preparing for the educative journey.
Gaining perspective
Take a moment to consider the conceptual direction of education. With information so readily available and so easily accessed, what’s the real purpose of a modern education? When TED, YouTube, Skillshare, Khan Academy, Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, iTunes U and countless other resources are freely available, surely the moment has come to call time on the antiquated relics called ‘schools’? Regimented blocks of learning delineated by the school bell; students compliantly seated in rows, consuming content deemed important by the authors of syllabus documents; punitive consequences for students who won’t comply … surely it’s much more efficient to give each child a laptop and allow them to learn at their own pace? Surely being able to access endless information at the click of a mouse negates the importance of what teachers do in class? Just as we no longer subject our children to the harsh realities of child labour, now is the time to remove them from the confines of overcrowded classrooms so that they are not laden with distractions but instead progress at their own pace. This revolutionary thinking would more effectively create globally connected digital citizens … right?
Wrong. If we look at the educative experience through that narrow lens, we could be convinced schools are old-fashioned, obsolete constructs of another age and now lack relevance; however, nothing could be further from the truth. Now more than ever students and their families need the positive influence of enlightened educators like you.
The real purpose of education
It’s true that our school system hasn’t changed much since the industrial age; however, the reasoning behind why we do what we do has changed.
From the outside looking in, the teaching profession appears to have cushy working hours and an overabundance of holidays, but those at the coalface know reality is very different. Teachers tirelessly give of themselves to help young people learn new ideas and concepts, because they know the power of education to bring real change in the world. And the more you look into the dedication of amazing educators, the more you realise that the real purpose of education is relationships – relationships between students and teachers; students and other students; teachers and parents; and students and parents.
But it doesn’t end there. The process of helping others to build authentic relationships results in the creation of something even more profound. Teachers help to bring purpose to the lives of the people they influence. The development of meaningful relationships assists teachers, students and families to rediscover their reason for being. The teachers open doors that help young people and their families become better than they believed they could be. Teachers inspire greatness; they open up opportunities for their charges to live long, fulfilled lives. They are part of an unstoppable force that effects societal change and shapes our future.
Social skills are learnt on the playground; teamwork is refined in physical education classes; cooperation and compromise are explored through group tasks; and lifelong passions blossom in clubs and special-interest groups. These are all incredibly worthwhile ventures, however at its core the real purpose of education lies in the development of quality relationships.
‘Don’t be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn’t do what you do or think as fast. There was a time when your didn’t know what you know today.’
Malcolm X
When setting out to become a teacher, pedagogues are provided with an arsenal of tools for ‘managing’ problematic behaviours. Seating plans, reward charts, class expectations and lots of other ideas are considered and put into the toolkit, ready for implementation. There are also many experts who offer a range of research-based classroom-management strategies and frameworks, and outlets where these tools can be purchased. At a whole-school level many institutions manage infractions with systems and software that tracks breaches of the organisation’s expectations. Repeat offenders are flagged so that the hierarchy can apply the consequences that match the transgression while keeping in mind any previous violations.
Management, by definition, is a process of control, a way of monitoring and measuring in order to provide appropriate gains in particular areas. Behaviour management in the classroom is a topic that is backed by mountains of research, however this does not provide it with immunity from further investigation. What has happened in the past may not be what’s best for the future. Budgets and investment portfolios can be managed; multimillion-dollar business deals can be managed; as too can pain and disease. Children, however, are a completely different matter. There is no part of your teaching mandate that affords you the right to even attempt to ‘manage’ a child’s behaviour. The belief that a teacher is able to exert control in this way is a foolish approach.
Just as it was realised many years ago that disciplining a child through the threat or actuality of physical pain is not acceptable, it is imperative to bring a different way of optimising the opportunities for every personality in your classroom. The young people in your care are wonderful, inquisitive, unique individuals, and they deserve to be treated in a manner that reflects this.
To appreciate this, take some of the phrases or practices commonly heard and seen in many classrooms and put them into the adult world. Imagine sitting in your principal’s office and being told that your behaviour today was upsetting them so much that your name was going on the naughty corner of the whiteboard in the staffroom. How would you feel if those in charge demanded that you start behaving the ‘right way’, the way they determine to be acceptable, and if you don’t you will be subject to a punishment arbitrarily decided on by that same authority figure? It doesn’t sound like the way to a good outcome, does it?
It is time to evolve beyond believing the way to effectively educate is to first ‘manage’ or ‘control’ children’s behaviour. Educators need to drop the idea of micro-management and pursue a better way of interacting with their students.
The answer is …
If this is to occur, the question remains: how do I eliminate the need to ‘manage’ or ‘control’ or ‘oversee’ children’s behaviour? Teachers lament the power that already seems to have been taken from them, so how do we make sure the classroom does not denigrate into chaos and anarchy?
The answer is so simple it seems ridiculous: to create student engagement without the need to manage or control, educators must ensure children are always provided access to interesting, relevant and engaging learning combined with positive and collegial relationships. And that’s exactly what you’re going to learn to do in these pages.
Understanding student behaviour
When trying to understand student behaviour, you must remember that the opportunities that have presented themselves in our lives may not exist in the lives of our students. If you have obtained a university degree it is highly likely that growing up many people in your life believed in you, encouraged you and pushed you towards becoming a better person. This, sadly, is not the case for some of our students. Too many lack positive role models and an environment of encouragement at home, and some – tragically – go without the most basic of needs, such as adequate nutrition and a loving home environment.
