Student Engagement

[Name of the Institute]

Student Engagement

For the development of a strong personality, it is important to have exceptional academic and student engagements. Only achieving academic skills are not enough for any individual, because student engagements build confidence within an individual. Moreover, it enhances various skills of the individual and open areas, where the individual can excel. Those individuals who only restrict themselves to academics often fall back and are not able to compete with other students. In this paper, we will discuss the importance of student engagement in learning.

Literature Review

Riggs and Gholar (2008) warned the profession that student engagements in schools are marginalized and deteriorating. Even more disturbing, Barkley (2009) found that in today's schools many students believe that they are not very skilled or cannot learn skills, and hesitate to participate in social activity. Some even refuse to participate in social activity because of the negative experiences in student engagements.

Harper and Quaye (2009) presented research that portrayed learned helplessness, inequity, and alienation in student engagements. Jennings and Angelo (2006) described learned helplessness as a phenomenon that has emerged with individuals whose feelings of incapability can become a static condition in which individuals acquire a feeling of helplessness in attempting a number of different tasks. That is, learned-helpless individuals perceive little control over their achievement during social or academic tasks. Utilizing a case-study methodology Jennings and Angelo (2006) provided an in-depth understanding of a middle-school student who was learned-helpless. They analyzed her situation through observation and interview and then proposed an intervention targeting student engagements to start to impact her motivational patterns. Their proposal to improve the student's control and confidence involved: stressing effort and improvement over outcome, structuring the learning environment for maximum participation, encouraging the student to engage in social activity outside the class and school time, and creating ...