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References.

ACARA. (2018, January). Mordialloc College, Mordialloc, VIC. Retrieved October 2019, from My School: https://myschool.edu.au/school/45431

ACARA. (2019, May). Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability. Retrieved October 2019, from Australian Curriculum: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/information-and-communication-technology-ict-capability/

AITSL. (2019). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers - Graduate Standards. Retrieved October 2019, from Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership: https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards

Brown , J., LaRusso, M., Lawrence Aber, J., & Jones, S. (2010). Improving Classroom Quality: Teacher Influences and Experimental Impacts of the 4Rs Program. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(1), 153-167. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/technology/4-timeless- elements-strong-student-teacher-relationships/

Davies, M., Lamb, S., & Doecke, E. (2011). Strategic Review of Effective Re-Engagement Models for Disengaged Learners. Melbourne: Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

De Nobile, J., Lyons, G., & Arthur-Kelly, M. (2017). Poitive Leanring Environments: Creating and Maintaining Productive Classrooms. . Melbourne: Cengage Learning.

Department of Education and Early Childhood. (2019, May). Identify students at risk of disengaging. Retrieved October 2019, from Victorian State Government: Education and Training: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/participation/pages/disengagedrisk.aspx

Dunleavy, J., & Milton, P. (2009). What did you do in school today? Exploring the concept of Student Engagement and its implications for Teaching and Learning in Canada. Toronto: Canadian Education Association (CEA).

Fielding, J. (2005). Engaging students in learning history. Canadian Social Studies, 39(2), 1-8.

Fredericks, J. A., & McColskey, W. (2012). The Measurement of Student Engagement: A Comparative Analysis of Various Methods and Student Self‐report Instruments. In S. Christenson, A. L. Reschly, & C. Wylie, Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 763-782). Berlin: Springer.

Fredericks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School Engagement: Potential of the Concept, State of the Evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59-109.

Google. (2019). Manage teaching and learning with Classroom. Retrieved 2019 October, from Google Classroom: https://edu.google.com/products/classroom/?modal_active=none

Griffin, P., McGaw, B., & Care, E. (2012). Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills. Berlin: Pringer.

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta‐analyses relating to achievement. New York: Taylor and Francis Group.

Kahu, E., Nelson, K., & Picton, C. (2017). Student interest as a key driver of engagement for first year students. Student Success, 8(2), 55-66.

Kettlewell, K., Southcott, C., Stevens, E., & McCrone, T. (2012). Engaging the disengaged. Slough: National Foundation for Educational Research.

Pellegrino, J., & Hilton, M. (2012). Importance of Deeper Learning and 21st Century Skills. In Education for Life and Work: Develop Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century (pp. 52-83). Washington: The National Academies Pres.

Suárez, Á., Spechta, M., Prinsenb, F., Kalza, M., & Ternier, S. (2018). A review of the types of mobile activities in mobile inquiry-based learning. Computers & Education, 118, 38-55.

VCAA. (2015). Victorian Certificate of Education: HISTORY STUDY DESIGN. Melbourne: Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority .

VCAA. (2019, June). Learning areas and Capabilities. Retrieved October 2019, from Victorian Curriculum F-10: https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/overview/curriculum-design/learning-areas-and-capabilities

Willms, J. D., Friesen, S., & Milton, P. (2009). What did you do in school today? Transforming classrooms through social, academic and intellectual engagement. Toronto: Canadian Education Association.

Windham, C. (2005). The Student’s Perspective. In D. Oblinger, & J. Oblinger, Educating the Net generation(pp. 5.1-5.16). Boulder: EDUCAUSE.

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With the areas that need improvement highlighted earlier, and reflecting on literature, I would propose to try and improve emotional engagement to begin with.  You need to be able to build rapport with your class by trying to make an environment that is more interesting and engaging for its students (Brown et al, 2010).  Similarly, Hattie (2009) finds that a strong classroom management and student teacher relationships have a significant impact on engagement and achievement. This is not a space where children just feel welcomed but an area where students feel safe to make mistakes, where mutual respect drives high expectations (Ibid). leading to self-regulated learning where a child has the capacity to shape their own goals. Teachers can create these spaces by the simple task of getting to know their students’ lives outside of the classroom, taking an interest in what they are interested in, and linking coursework to aspects of their own life (Hattie, 2009). Through building an emotional connection with your class this would assist in eliminating attendance as students feel welcomed and cherished within the class. Additionally, would assist in student wellbeing, where students’ know they have a safe environment to speak for support if needed.

From there, numerous researchers have highlighted the innovation and importance of engagement to increase cognitive, behavioural and emotional engagement through six (6) characteristics: “Interaction, exploration, relevancy, multimedia, instruction and authentic assessment (Windham, 2005; Willms, Friesen, & Milton, 2009; Dunleavy & Milton, 2009).” As simple as this may seem, many teachers that I have witnessed on placement struggle with the ability to tailor learning to the needs of its students (AITSL 1.5, 2019). Having already created a new connection/interaction with students my next phase in changing this classroom disengagement would be to shift the way students engage with material. Literature shows that the most effective way in increasing engagement with learners is to shift pedagogical approaches to inquiry based, problem solving and exploratory models. Similar to what I had said in the introduction, where I believe engagement comes from students being able to develop critical creative thinking and decision-making skills in the classroom. This shift to an inquiry classroom can allow students to utilise digital technology, in clicking our own path through cyberspace and selecting the subjects through this exploration rather than accepting a teachers words and being passive learners (Windham, 2005). In changing approaches to teaching and relaying information this would assist in eliminating behaviour and attitudes to work in my VCE history class. Following on from creating an inquiry and scenario-based classroom, relevancy needs to be prevalent where real life situations and scenarios are given where possible opposed to being text based. Once again, the idea is building students understanding, and giving them a sense of purpose within the learning experience(Dunleavy & Milton, 2009; Willms, Friesen, & Milton, 2009).

In order to create these real-world scenarios, we need the assistance of multimedia and technology to interact globally with people and events. This is easy with a VCE history class because it is based on analysing global events. It brings accessibility and relevance to subject matter where they could discover more information about a topic than the teacher now that they are no longer the main source of information (Suárez et al, 2018). This has also been shown to create engagement as students explore ways to present their learning and assist in students controlling their learning (Ibid). studies have shown that as a result of using technology within the classroom, students are more motivated to learn, apply their knowledge to practical problems, and take ownership of their work. Additionally, as a requirement of the Australian and Victorian Curriculum, it is a cross-curricular priority to utilise technology in developing student to become prepared for the 21st century (ACARA, 2019; VCAA, 2019).

Instruction compromises two factors, engaging pedagogy, and engaging curriculum. Having changed pedagogy in the past points, curriculum is the next area of change in the VCE History class. Being that now there is a greater push for interdisciplinary curriculum the what we teach needs to be more engaging, where cross subject exploration and collaboration and defined as 21st century skills and a necessity for our current students (Pellegrino & Hilton, 2012). Unlike the curriculums of the past, where focus was on learning the individual subject, the new Australian and Victorian curriculum call for intentionally interdisciplinary understandings (ACARA, 2019; VCAA, 2019). Requiring critical thinking, interpersonal relationship skills, creativity, information, media and technology skills all infused into core content as both process and outcome. Resulting in a richer instructional approach to engage students with the content.

Finally, in proposing innovation for engagement is creating assessment for learning. This calls for teachers to utilise formative assessments to monitor and assess student engagement with sharing conversations on how they are learning (Griffin, McGaw, & Care, 2012). Suggesting that rather than meeting standard expectations, but more on learning for further development and how to fill in knowledge gaps. Standardised testing results in teachers teaching to the test rather than taking interest in learners’ needs, interests, and abelites (Ibid). An example of this could be displayed through a student portfolio, showing their work and understanding for a topic over the period of learning. Additionally, learners explore articulate what they wanted to learn and how they would demonstrate their learning.

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Within the AITSL (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership) (2019) standard 3.6 graduate teachers are to evaluate and improve teaching programs. As discovered in the vignette, the folio is facing a range of issues: not completing school/homework, erratic/no attendance, behavioural issues, and wellbeing factors are at play. To develop further understanding prior knowledge to engagement needs to be shown.

A Major concern about the increasing rate of student disengagement have placed an urgency on both the Australian and Victorian Curriculum’s to increase lifelong learning (Davies, Lamb, & Doecke, 2011). Engagement is ambiguous where different features of engagement stand out to others. Engagement is more than about a good classroom behaviour or attendance, but a connection with learners (Kahu, Nelson, & Picton, 2017). A student who is quietly sitting in the back of the classroom not participating in work nor discussions with others is a disengaged student as to a student who is disrupting the class or thoughts who didn’t show up to class (Ibid). Students who are not engaged with their learning are more likely to learn at a slower pace, leading to lower achievement (Hattie, 2009). Creating engagement is a complex cognitive process, where a students’ .psychological investment in their own learning is needed to be present (Fredericks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). Fredericks et al (2004) proposes a framework that must be considered when considering engagement which include cognitive, behavioural and emotional engagement.

Cognitive engagement involves students to be focused, concentrating on achieving a goal, flexible in their work and are able to cope with failure. It is not just about doing the work, but about the mindset and the process that is happening within students’ heads. This does not insinuate that students must be high achievers, but no matter the academic level they are all working at their own individual level (Fredericks & McColskey, 2012). A lack of cognitive engagement can be seen in the vignette example as no work being completed apart from whole group discussions.

Behavioural engagement referrers to the students participating and interacting with learning activities and developing skills in the classroom. This includes appropriate behaviours and attitudes within the classroom and behavioural skills that are needed in senior levels of education such collaboration and communicating with peers (Ibid). Behavioural engagement assists cognitive engagement to occur as it ensures students are physically and mentally ready to learn. In the vignette behavioural engagement that is being tested can be seen through erratic or no attendance, lack of interest in school or the subject, and inappropriate behaviour for a classroom.

Finally, emotional engagement refers to the relationship between students and as well their teacher. Students are engaged when they feel included and feel an emotional bond with people within the school(Department of Education and Early Childhood, 2019; Fredericks & McColskey, 2012). Emotional engagement is being breached within the vignette through little respect for peers within the classroom and the teacher by not completing what is being asked of them.

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Some food for thought to start questioning a traditional education mindset of 'disengagement'.

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Some food for thought to start questioning a traditional education mindset of 'disengagement'.

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Education as investment: Engaging the disengaged | David Delmar | TEDxSomerville

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Before unpacking this folio, I believe it is important to understand and characterise what disengagement means and what engagement would look like in a VCE history classroom. Disengagement from an active classroom can be associated with students feeling situational incompetence or threats of lacking self-determination from school staff, peers and parents. It can also result in internalised behaviour such as boredom, emotional distress and/or external behaviour such as misbehaving and dropping out (Kettlewell et al,. 2012). Alternatively, engagement is often associated with positive academic outcomes, including achievement and persistence within a school setting. But I believe that engagement is one that students are able to develop critical creative thinking and decision-making skills (Fielding, 2005).

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For this Problem Based Folio (PBF) I will be focusing on a Year 11 History class that was completing Unit 2 (Twentieth Century history 1945-2000 (VCAA, 2015)) during my practicum at Mordialloc College (MC). MC is a Co-Educational (higher male percentage enrolled), Years 7-12 Government Secondary school 27 kms South of Melbourne CBD (ACARA, 2018). Student learning at MC is cohesively believed amongst teachers to provide a challenging environment where students feel safe and supported (Ibid). This was a small history class consisting of 8 boys and 3 girls. Being a small class, it had its challenges, but it was an environment that was supportive, and everyone contributed to discussions (De Nobile, Lyons, & Arthur-Kelly, 2017). But when it came down to coursework, students were reluctant to participate and complete work, additionally there was no completion of homework either; even though students understand that non-completion of work results in consequences such as lower academic marks, detentions, and if continuous internal suspensions. This is the first significant element in the problem of disengagement within my VCE history class. Secondly, student attendance amongst the class of 11 is quite low. This results in students being left behind in content and having to take the imitative to catch up themselves which doesn’t occur, students become uninterested in work because they don’t understand the background context to what they are learning. This can result in my time being used to focuse on those particular students who have missed class to try and catch them up whilst it is hindering the learning progression for other students. Thirdly, behaviours and attitudes toward the history unit have been met with opposition and hostility, with many students not wanting to there “because there wasn’t any other choice for subject selections.”  As well as a lack of choice when it comes to content. And finally, a main factor for disengagement within the history class is mental wellbeing. At this time, the school has placed an enormous pressure on students to perform, but also external factors need to be taken into consideration, such as home life, and own mental health. Before taking over the class during my practicum, my mentor was using Google Classroom
which aims at helping students and teachers
organise assignments, boost collaboration
within the classroom and foster better communication
between the parties involved (Google, 2019).
Additionally, was using a range of recourses to
try and engage students (use of videos, imagery,
prompt questions) and kept adapting pedagogy
to meet the needs of his students.