This result shows that a huge part of positive engagement in students is stimulation, and the introduction of diverse, innovative activities, and proves that we need to re-examine the traditional, binary ways of teaching that might be contributing to the disengagement of students.

“…her findings indicate that engagement in self-assessment and self-reflection activities have an important impact on online studies and social interaction, which produce a significant engagement in problem-solving activities (Wang, 2017).”

I chose this because it is something that is valuable and easy to implement. Consistent student-self-evaluation activities is great so they can be in tune with their learning, their engagement, on what’s going well for them, what isn’t, and if there’s any support they need.

“Mazer (2013) found that teachers’ immediate positive behaviors stimulate emotional arousal in students, which leads to greater emotional interest and engagement…Moreover, students who experience heightened emotional interest pay attention to a subject because they are energized, excited, and emotionally engaged by how the materials are presented.”

This explains the emotional side of engagement which highlights that a teachers emotions are heavily reflected by students, which is important for teachers to be aware of, and when students are emotionally invested, or excited it increases engagement, which is something else teachers can help produce through their teaching techniques.

“…students who participate in intergroup competition significantly foster better students’ engagement, learning achievement, and creativity”

 I chose this because it’s another easy style of teaching that can be implemented to improve engagement because it also fuels achievement.

This explains basic knowledge about students and learning, and the perfect idea of a student that students strive to be and teachers strive to teach, which is informative of why its important students are motivated to learn

“Disengaged Detractors: Unfortunately, not all students have a positive attitude towards learning. Some students may exhibit a disengaged or negative attitude, showing little interest or involvement in their studies. These students may require additional intervention and support to re-ignite their interest and motivation.”

This is important to highlight, because no matter how innovative teaching techniques are or how much positive reinforcement there is, students might need extra help in order to be engaged and learn.

“Remember, every student is unique, and their attitudes may vary across different subjects and contexts. It’s important to create a safe and inclusive learning environment where students feel supported and empowered to develop a positive attitude towards their education.”

In the school classroom, all students are unique and learn differently, due to personal experience, and safe environments for students to engage is upmost important in schools.

“Disruptive behavior from students with negative attitudes can seriously disrupt the learning environment for everyone. It not only affects the student themselves but also creates a distraction for others, making it difficult for teachers to maintain an effective and focused classroom.”

It is essential to recognize for this issue, that environments in the classroom, and how students may engage in disruptive behavior affects engagement and teaching efficacy.

This explains that both teachers and students are wanting the other to be more interested in them, which is so interesting that they both feel the same way.

“According to the teachers, a low level of readiness of the students, learning difficulties, being in adolescence, having a lack of interest to the lesson, aimlessness and no motivation as well as coming to school without sleep, hungry and tired makes it difficult for them to collect their attention in the classroom”

This is a valuable insight from a teachers’ perspective that it isn’t just students not being engaged in classroom that is affecting teaching, but it is also their tiredness from life and being at school.

“The expectations of the teachers from the school management were to make the guidance services more functional (f: 6), to organize trainings to raise awareness of the parents (f: 5), to make educational activities for the students about school and classroom rules (f: 5) and to give the children various responsibilities within the school (f: 5)”

I wanted to highlight how teachers think management and parents should do more to help students learning in the classroom, because it isn’t just students and teachers who can contribute.

“Three of the students who expressed their expectations about using different methods and techniques appropriate to the level and making the lessons more interesting stated… “I would like our teachers to explain the lessons better and clearly” (Stu 712F6) and “Some teachers do not teach the lesson or teach above our level. This causes students to lose attention and so students do not like the lesson” (Stu450F7)”

This is coming from students’ perspective on the ways in which teachers can instruct better, and in a way that is more attention grabbing, and it is great insight to look at, because these students know their feelings best about their education.

This is important because it highlights the general attitudes of a teacher that are most effective in the classroom, and it seems to be characteristics that are understanding and nurturing according to students.

"Later, Reoyo, Carbonero, and Martín [30] identified eight characteristics directly related to teaching effectiveness: domain knowledge; planning and organization; class management and development; educational innovation; knowledge transmission; inter personal relationship; personal ethics; and professional commitment. Amongst these characteristics, interpersonal relationships emerges as the most significant skill, while personal ethics and educational innovation are the least relevant."

This shows that the most important aspects of teaching include a clear organized plan and interpersonal relationship skills, and personal ethics and innovation are actually the least relevant, which shows that effective teaching does not need to include any thorough explanation of personal teaching and education ethics or any crazy new style of teaching, which is extremely helpful.

"Ávalos [50] stated that when a teacher selectively fails to answer questions from some students, regularly answers learners with irony, or shows a degree of intermittent deafness to them, school failure occurs much more frequently."

I found this so interesting because I know I have personal experience with a teacher who never really answered my questions, and I think teachers properly and effectively answering questions without humor or ego is extremely helpful.

"The countries and educational administrations that undervalue teachers and hinder their professional performance find counteractive results, since they harm what they are longing for: quality education"

This line is important because it stresses that it is also so vital that there are tons of support and love within the administration for teachers to be able to teach effectively, because when they are undervalued is when they might experience emotional burnout and not teach well.

According to expectancy-value theorists, motivation includes the belief one can do it, and the task must have perceived value for it, which is key insight into what motivates students to learn.

"Attributions directly influence expectancy of future success, and indirectly influence perceived value as mediated by the learner’s emotional response to success or failure."

This quote talks about Attribution Theory, which explains how people might have a conscious or subconscious attribution to the task, involving if they think they will fail or succeed, which influences how they treat the task. This explains motivation to learn further.

"Social-cognitive theory... contends that people learn through reciprocal interactions with their environment and by observing others, rather than simply through direct reinforcement of behaviors... As regards to motivation, the theory emphasizes that humans are not thoughtless actors responding involuntarily towards and punishments, but that cognition govern show individuals interpret their environment and self-regulate their thoughts, feelings and actions."

This is important in understanding that the mind has a lot of power over the will to learning, and that learning happens often through observation and interaction.

"With performance goals the primary concern is to do better than others and avoid looking dumb: ‘I want to get a good grade’. Mastery goals, by contrast, focus on the intrinsic value of learning (i.e. gaining new knowledge or skills."

This is another goal that looks at the types of goals people have, and how it might contribute to someone's motivation to learn, or how they go about it.

This emphasizes that the lack of learning and focus negatively impacts staff morale, which can then perpetuate the cycle.

"NCES data also show that 9 in 10 public schools that provided high-dosage tutoring rated it as being at least moderately effective in improving student outcomes during the 2023–24 school year."

This is something important to look at because, while we can also improve teaching in the classroom, we can also provide other outlets for learning like more tutoring and promote it more often.

"Students being academically unprepared for school (e.g., not doing homework, not bringing necessary supplies) brought down staff and teachers morale."

This is something else that is causing staff and teachers fail to teach affectively.

"Public school leaders were asked about what they needed to better support student behavior and development in May 2022 and in May 2024: The need for more training on classroom management strategies increased by 11% From May 2022 to 2024."

No matter how important it is to teach effectively, there are still going to be student behavior problems, so more knowledge for teachers on just how to manage behavior for a productive classroom is important.

This shows us a theory of what effective learning is, and what we can implement to achieve that. That being cognition, and problems solving.

"Constructivism is based on the belief that learners work to create, interpret, and reorganise knowledge. Learners participate actively to reconcile the information they receive in the classroom with their existing knowledge, within the cultural and social contexts in which the ideas occur. Learners interact with people who are more knowledgeable than they are to increase their knowledge. These people include the teacher and the more knowledgeable students. Classroom activities which are normally organised in groups foster active learning. Students work cooperatively to effectuate meaningful learning."

This is a theory that shows that another important factor for learning is social and cultural contexts, and that through group activity, this is possible.

"Reflection involves critical thinking about past or current experience in the classroom. It involves questions regarding what was good or bad, what worked or did not work, what motivated students and the like that affect teaching and learning...Through inquiry, reflectivism brings about flexibility in teaching by helping the teacher examine the successes and failures in facilitating the learner’s knowledge construction."

This shows how reflection is great for learning, and if we make this a process we complete more often, we can boost engagement.

"Globalisation has widened the scope of knowledge. Learners are now faced with a wide spectrum of knowledge. With the rapid increase in knowledge, learners need to assess the worthiness of what is learned. The ability to synthesise and recognise connections in differing fields of knowledge is important. Learners need to form connections between sources of information and create useful information patterns to learn."

This touches on technology and how that has impacted learning, making it more difficult for kids to synthesize and understand information, which we can try to sharpen these skills, so learning is more effective.

This shows how students think strict grading systems and having graded attendance make learning not as fun, which keeps them not unengaged. Shows how we might need to operate the school differently.

"An example of positive reinforcement: a teacher gives out a project and said its optional and whoever completes it will get extra credit, so some people will do the project as an opportunity to get extra credit."

This student explains that rewards are not effective, but positive reinforcement is, and extra credit is a great way to help keep students motivated.

"I agree with this when it comes to the rewards that school gives you. But I don’t agree with it when you get a reward that you actually want or have been trying to get for a long time."

This person thinks that plain incentives in school, like getting rewarded for attendance, do not make students more motivated in the long run, but that the further ideas of college is what motivate learning.

"Human beings are motivated by a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. If one is not motivated by a physical reward or punishment, then there is self-satisfaction that is being rewarded."

This person thinks that there is a mix of both reward/incentive and internal self-motivation.