When you allow autonomy and require responsibility, you encourage motivation and self-guided learning in your students – and you fuel academic achievement and a sense of excitement. Ask a Researcher, a project from Digital Promise and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, offers evidence-based guidance on classroom dilemmas. You can submit your question here.
Does offering students a choice in assignments lead to greater engagement?
Decades of psychological research concludes that providing students with choices leads to increased autonomy and, in turn, motivation and learning.
- But when it comes to giving choices – just like ice cream and movie sequels – more is not always better. Faced with too many choices, students can become overwhelmed
- Research suggests three to five options may produce the most satisfaction and motivation
Do digital learning materials improve student achievement or motivation?
Two main ways that technology can effectively increase engagement with the kind of tasks traditionally found on worksheets: giving feedback and tracking student performance
- You want computers to offer feedback that reinforces the work that led to a correct response, or feedback that helps guide the learner to pathways to correct answers
- Digital technology can use past performance and the performance of similar students to dynamically determine what item, tasks or bit of instruction should come next
How do we allow for inquiry while still ensure learning?
Inquiry and learning are not meant to be mutually exclusive
- They are complementary parts of any teaching and learning experience
- Allowing students autonomy is an essential gateway to engagement
- When students feel empowered, they become more excited to learn
How can we foster young people’s natural capacities to be leaders, in ways that are equitable and collectively beneficial?
When designed correctly and allowed to work on substantive issues, student government can be an authentic leadership body
- Fully represents the demographics of the school and the interests of students, then it can play a fundamental role in shaping the school’s values and structures
