Student Engagement

Well, it's summer vacation and the 2011-2012 school year seems like a distant memory and the soon to come 2012-2013 school year is on the way....way too soon. As a part of summer, I like to increase my participation in the water aerobics classes offered at our local Rec. Center. During the school year, I am only able to take the evening classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. During the summer, I can add the Monday, Wednesday, Friday morning class. This morning I had a revelationary moment as I thought about the two different instructors and how they run their classes. The revelation caused me to think about student engagement in the water aerobics class and draw a parallel to student engagement in the classroom.

 The Scene: The classes are both taught in the same pool. We use the lap lanes which very gently go from 4 feet to 5 foot 8 inches. The students are kind of centered in the pool. The morning students seem to be a little older and tend toward the shallow end of the pool. The evening students seem to spread across the entire length of the pool.

 Instructor AM:
The Approach: Instructor AM generally keeps the class moving between the lane line and the wall. For 80-90% of the 45 minute class. These are short laps maybe about 15 feet each way. Toward the end of the class, maybe the last 3 to 5 minutes, she will move us to the shallow end for stretching and balance exercises.The class starts with laps running, jogging, cross country, rocking horse...we always seem to hit the ground running. The laps throughout the class have a variety of exercises using both arms and legs; back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Generally AM gives us a direction of motion that she is in the pool also doing and after the instruction, we go back and forth back and forth back and forth.....etc. She changes the focus about every 5-10 minutes. Occasionally, she will call a motion that is "double time" fast legs fast arms. These "double time" intervals don't seem to have any set amount of time and sometimes she changes the motion throughout a double time interval. After the instruction is given there are, what seem to be long periods of silence until she shouts the next instruction. Instructor AM always seems to run out of time, like there is more that she has planned that she just didn't get to but she often promises we will do next time.

Observation of the students: Firstly, I think some of these ladies have been in this class for a very long time. They seem to chat about their children, grandchildren and I think I even heard one mention a great grandchild. They are also fond of gambling and exchange tips on the slot machines that pay out at the casinos they frequent. Sometimes, they have such conversation with the instructor. The ladies seem to be trying to do whatever the exercise is but I have also seen women who seem to chat the time away and I am not sure they have done any of the exercises.

Instructor PM
 The Approach: Instructor PM seems to have more students in her classes and one of the lap lanes is taken over by the class as the floating divider is moved over. Instructor PM has the class moving from the lane line to the wall and from the deep end to the shallow end and back. During the hour long class PM always starts out slow with gentle movements to get warmed up and used to the water. There is always a start, height of exercise and a cool down with plenty of stretching. Throughout the entire class, PM gives instruction about position, breathing, what you should feel and what you should do if it doesn't fit your ability or range of motion. This is a kind of constant coaching or reminding about what is important.

Observation of the students: The class seems to have some regular attenders but there are new and different people in the class on a regular basis. There seems to be very little conversation among the class as we exercise. With all of the different directions we travel, a missed instruction could result in a crash... not that anyone would be injured but maybe a little embarrassed.

So, what does this say about student engagement?
During instructor PM's class, there are constant reminders about how to do the exercise correctly, how it should feel, how to modify it if it is not feeling right and encouragement to "keep breathing". Instructor AM's class is a 15 second instruction and a long period of silence. With so much time open, it is easy to drift off, miss a quick instructional change, have your body in a bad position. There is no modification or direction about how the exercise should feel. I think some of the women just move and don't know if they are doing what is being asked of them. There is no feedback, no coaching. It also seems like the long periods of silence need to be filled so the ladies have conversations to keep their minds actively engaged as well.

In the Academic classroom
While this observation is based on physical activity, this applies to the academic classroom as well. Have you been in a class where there is instruction given and periods of long silence while students work? How easy does it become to be off task either chatting or wandering off mentally? Have you ever been in a classroom where the teacher gives instruction and continues to give instruction as the work goes on? An observation of an error and a correction given to the entire class rather than 30 times to each individual? What it looks like to do it right. What if feels like to do it right. What do do if you don't have it right, how to change it to make it fit what you know.