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F I V E PAT H S O F S T U D E N T E N G AG E M E N T
Rethinking Engagement After the Coronavirus
The big questions in the end concern how we can apply the lessons of this pandemic to make our schools more engaging places for students. Can we redesign schools so that no student dreads the daily confrontation with his or her enemies? Can we create safe environments that help all students to engage with their learning without being disrupted by their peers? Can we get all teachers to move beyond arbitrary and insensitive grading practices? And can we access and use technology to enhance and enrich teaching and learning in school, rather than undermining or replacing it?124 Perhaps the most important question for this book is, What can we learn of lasting value from this pandemic about student engagement? Some children have savored their time at home with their parents. Many parents have gained new appreciation for their children’s teachers, as they have discovered how hard it is to keep their children focused on their schoolwork when they are restless, easily distracted, frustrated with their downloads and apps, and annoyed by their siblings. Technology at home has sometimes The most important been a blessing for opening access to learnquestion for this ing resources, but it has also been a curse of book is, What malfunctions and distractions. Schools have can we learn of been spotlighted as places we cannot do withlasting value from out. Hour after hour, day by day, over weeks this pandemic and then months, in all but a few places, we about student have been reminded that the rich social enviengagement? ronment that schools and their teachers can provide offers more enduring engagement for children than many locked-down families or any digital devices ever can.
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geometrically represented where the students actually stand. Digital platforms can gather together students’ opinions in real time and reflect them back to each other. And skipping together is one of the oldest games of modern times. These are only a few of the ways that youngsters can engage with their learning in and out of school.
