Abstract
In this chapter, we review the literature on the importance of different kinds of supportive relationships, including support from teachers, mentors, parents, and peers. We next present results from our ESM and video studies investigating the primary characteristics of the learning environment as a whole when students are engaged in classrooms. The primary characteristic of such learning environments was environmental complexity or the simultaneous combination of environmental challenge and environmental support. Environmental challenge was characterized by working on tasks of sufficient complexity for the learner’s skill level (usually with domain-specific tools), clear goals and perceived importance of the task, the building of conceptual understanding and/or language skills (including academic literacies such as “talking like a scientist”), and the opportunity to demonstrate one’s performance, as through assessment. Environmental support was characterized by positive relationships with teachers and peers, support for motivational drives (e.g., support of the learners sense of autonomy or perceived competency), constructive feedback (especially timely performance feedback), and opportunities to be both active and interactive. Environmental support was found to be engaging all by itself, whereas environmental challenge was engaging only in combination with environmental support. This suggests that students are engaged when supported to reach challenges, but not in absence of such support. Overall, supportive dimensions of students’ experience, including relationship support and support for student motivation, had a strong impact on students’ engagement in public school classrooms.
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Notes
- 1.
Several class-level variables were highly overlapping, because the seven classes observed were all different subjects (with one exception—two were English), and all subjects were taught by different teachers, with one exception (one teacher taught both class in sociology and geography). Because we considered the two English classes taught by the same teacher to be similar, we believed the school subject variable was the simplest and most comprehensive variable to account for the effect of class, subject, and teacher collectively. We hope to be able to disentangle the independent effects of each in future studies collecting more data.
- 2.
For example, there were self-reports about the same classroom situation at the same point in time from different students. Therefore, each self-report was not independent on the other. Classroom situations at these time points were a source of dependency, and there were others as well; see Shernoff et al. (2011) for a fuller discussion of how nestedness was conceptualized in this study.
- 3.
In this statistical modeling, self-reports of all of the students’ in the class were “nested” within each instructional episode when the ESM signal was given, and the classroom climate of the learning environment during that episode was rated. These models partitioned the variance in engagement into a “within-episode” component, meaning different student reporters about the same instructional episode (referred to as level 1), and a “between-episode” component (i.e., level 2), meaning the average difference in engagement a classroom reported from one instructional situation to the next. This allowed us to examine the average engagement between instructional episodes as a function of the attributes of the learning environment, as well as the individual variation within each instructional episode as a function of the personal characteristics of the student reporters.
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Appendix
Appendix
Coding categories and subcomponents of the Optimal Learning Environments—Observational Log and Assessment (OLE-OLA)
Characteristics |
|---|
1.Environmental complexity : combines environmental challenge (e.g., high task challenge and expectations for mastery) with supportiveness (e.g., relationship, emotional, and motivational support) |
Challenge dimension |
High expectations for competence, effort, commitment, and performance |
Task challenge or rigor; academic press |
Mastery orientation |
Optimal challenge |
Appropriate structure |
Support dimension |
Competency support (e.g., teaching for understanding) |
Opportunities for using skills and mastering tasks; high degree of skill used |
Support for self-efficacy |
Interpersonal/emotional support |
Positive emotional climate and democratic environment |
Cohesiveness, unity, and solidarity |
Support for individuality and diversity |
Support for motivation and engagement (see #2 below) |
Other elements that are often present: |
2.Support for motivation and engagement |
Autonomy support |
Support for interest development |
Support for intrinsic motivation: |
Supports flow (beyond optimal challenge) and group flow |
3.Importance of activity |
Importance or relevance of the activity is clarified or understood |
Real-world problem; facilitating a sense of purpose |
Real-world simulation or scenario |
Experiential learning: problem-based learning, project or service learning; serving the students’ school or community |
4.Complex, situated tasks |
Solving problems or fashioning products |
Use of domain-specific materials and tools |
Activities provoke inquiry or exploration |
Use of technology |
5.Positive relationships |
Every student is/feels respected, well regarded |
Positive student-teacher relations or rapport |
Student peer relations or rapport |
Positive communications (praise, affection, encouragement) |
No negative interactions (sarcasm, disrespect, harsh disagreement) |
6.Clear goals |
Goals of the activity are made clear |
Activities are related to learning goals/goals in course |
Activities relate to real life or adaptive goals |
Career/future goals |
Opportunities for personal development, and pursuing goals important to the self |
7.Interactivity and transactional learning |
Interactivity among teacher and students |
Every student has a role within the instructional/social system |
Students work cooperatively |
Opportunities for intellectual contributions |
Opportunities for initiative and leadership |
Opportunities to make valued contribution |
Opportunities to value others |
Knowledge building and creation (students contribute, explain, and evaluate ideas, contributing to shared knowledge) |
Active negotiating and consensus building |
Students have a say in class activities |
8.Feedback |
Feedback from instructor |
Feedback from peers |
Feedback is informational and accurate |
Positive feedback |
Scaffolding |
9.Activity level |
Physically active |
Mentally active |
10.Assessment |
Assessment is clear or understood |
Assessment based on learning goals |
Normative assessments |
Alternative assessments (e.g., performance assessment, portfolios, self-assessments) |
Self-regulation and life/adaptive/social/emotional skills are assessed |
Assessment of current knowledge to gauge ability level for future activities and challenges |
Assessment results provide valuable feedback (e.g., opportunities to learn and/or correct mistakes) |
11.Teacher’s direct role/management (beyond facilitating the learning environment) |
Keeps class safe |
Keeps class from becoming out of control |
Sets limits as needed, redirection of misbehavior |
Orderly transitions |
Is prepared |
Time management: manages activities and routines/maximizes work time |
Clear rules, regulations, and procedures |
Personally involved—friendly, caring enjoys being with students; provides time, attention, energy |
Awareness of and responsiveness to student needs and differences |
Regard for diverse students’ perspectives |
Effective direct facilitation of instructional activities |
Uses multiple and varied instructional formats (e.g., small group, presentation, videos, and discussions) |
Use of multiple learning modalities and materials (e.g., supports visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning) |
Encourages/facilitates high-level and meaning-making discourse |
Facilitates self-identification of goals, learning strategies, self-regulation, monitoring |
Provides instructional support: instruction-related help, varies instruction according to needs |
Availability/dependability |
12.Concept and language development |
Frequent/skillful questioning of students |
Presence of analysis and reasoning (e.g., higher-order thinking, open-ended questions, taking students’ ideas seriously) |
Expert modeling/cognitive apprenticeship |
Conceptual and knowledge development—providing useful information and concepts |
Opportunities to learn general rules/abstract principles/theory |
Opportunities to apply general rules to other specific and varied contexts/synthesize information/discover patterns; discovery learning |
Presence of language development (frequent conversations, high quality of discourse, use of “uptake”) |
Academic language development (sophisticated, domain-specific language, e.g., talking like a scientist, meaning-making discourse) |
Activities build in students present knowledge |
Activities require students to plan ahead, strategies, or anticipate others |
Opportunities for practice and development of mastery (including homework) |
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Shernoff, D.J. (2013). Connecting to “The Who”: The Primacy of Supportive Relationships. In: Optimal Learning Environments to Promote Student Engagement. Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7089-2_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7089-2_7
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