Article Review

In the article by Wagget, Johnston, and Jones (2017), they discussed conducting a study about assessing engagement in a given activity. Wagget, Johnston, and Jones (2017) claim “‘true engagement’ extends beyond students keeping busy and includes psychological aspects including self-motivation”(p. 393). High school math and science teachers were assessed during a two week long professional development for Science-Math-Masters. Teachers were given the five questions that represented their level of engagement in the task of that day. This was done after four different model lessons. The data was collected and analyzed. The study determined that (2017)“the resulting data indicate a high degree of correlation between the initial and follow-up assessments thereby supporting the reliability of the assessment checklist.”(Wagget, Johnston, and Jones, p.397)

I found it to be interesting the assessment was on teachers engagement during professional development. I think it is interesting that they were looking for a higher level of engagement than just raising of hands and paying attention. They were looking for self-motivation. Wagget, Johnston, and Jones (2017) explain,“Self-motivation comes from a desire to understand something interesting or learning in order to achieve personal goals”(p.393) I think I would use a form of this assessment to check my students self-motivation. Instead of the five levels of engagement statements, I would put emojis. I think using emojis students would be more likely to be honest about their engagement in the activity. This would give students a chance to reflect on their learning.

References

Waggett, R.J., Johnston, P., & Jones, L. B. (2017) Beyond simple participation: providing a reliable informal assessment tool of student engagement for teachers. Education, 137(4) 393-397.

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.library.aurora.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=13&sid=1417e281-4431-408e-96a2-1016a1483c5e%40sessionmgr4008