Engagement or Entertainment? Which is it?

NOTE: This entry on engagement is focusing on older students (middle school and up) and, while applicable to younger students, does understand the value and importance of “play” in learning with younger populations.

I don’t think there is any teacher who does not, or has not, struggled with student engagement. Getting students to focus and become involved in their own education is an ongoing issue, never more so than today! Students are inundated with messages and methods for gathering and processing information – especially in the last 10 to 20 years. Technology has allowed them to see information in the blink of an eye and if the classroom doesn’t do the same, they quickly lose interest. So what are we to do? If teachers are already challenged to find sufficient time to do all they are required to, what’s one more log on the fire? And people wonder what the reasons are that so many teachers leave the field within the first five years!

I don’t think we can debate the importance of engagement – finding materials that are content related and relevant to the student at the same time. However, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend – the idea the learning should be “fun.” Now, far be it from me to say that “fun” and “learning” don’t go hand-in-hand – I would say that a number of my lessons are fun for students to do. Then again, many are not. They aren’t boring either, and they adhere to the “content related and relevant to the student” idea. Students are focused, but I don’t think they walk away going “WOW…wasn’t that fun?!” Is that a bad thing? This misnomer that engagement = entertainment is dangerous, yet that is the attitude our students often come to school with; “entertain me or leave me alone!” If the purpose of education is to provide students with the skills and behaviors that will lead them to success, isn’t it wrong to lead them to believe that if something isn’t “fun” then don’t bother with it?

How many of us work at jobs that we don’t love, and even if we do (and I LOVE teaching), there are always parts of everyone’s job that are boring or tedious, or just plain painful to do. We still do them because it is expected of us. It is part of our career path. I worry that our society, especially younger generations, are so captured by the idea of being entertained that they will miss the important aspects of jobs and life in general because they aren’t deemed fun. I think that somewhere between fifth and eighth grade, students need to be taught to invest in their education through effort and practice, not entertainment. The end result is that students, themselves, will take over and create interesting ways to engage with their learning, while being guided by the teacher. This means educators and families have to become allies in teaching these skills. By the time they enter high school, students should have a clear picture that success is tied to effort and engagement, even when it is difficult to practice.

I have much more to say on this subject and will cover more of it in the next blog! Next time, I will look at current definitions of engagement and ideas of student motivation. Any ideas of your own to add?