Seven indicators that your students are
​authentically engaged

Richard Andrew  

I am yet to find a teacher who disagrees with the notion that student engagement is a fundamental prerequisite for the learning of mathematics. However, when it comes to implementing approaches to teaching, it is rarely given the status it deserves. This is often because student engagement is not only difficult to measure, but it can also be confused with ‘the entertainment of students via games and jovial dispositions of the teacher’.

To overcome these implications and to help bring student engagement to the forefront of any teaching approach, I instead use the term ‘Authentic Student Engagement’ – a term pivotal around a student’s genuine interest in what is being taught. There are several obvious indicators that accompany authentically engaged students.

Seven indicators that your students are authentically engaged:

​One: They actually want to be in the room.

Two: They don’t need to be one of the ‘better’ students in order to enjoy the lessons.

Three: They find the tasks interesting.

Four: The activities (including well-constructed, conceptually-based worksheets) enable them to be immersed in the work and understand what they’re doing.

Five: They have a sense of control over their learning because they are at the centre of it.

Six: The student-centred nature of the activities enabled them to have a sense of ownership over the learning.

​Seven: The learning is social, as collaboration and peer learning are key features of authentically engaged students.

These signs indicate that your students are not merely engaged with lesson games or teacher-student discourse, but with the subject itself.

So now we know how to see when our students are authentically engaged, how best can we try to have all our students exhibiting these signs?

In my experience, I’ve found that techniques from a well-structured conceptual approach to teaching mathematics can dramatically increase authentic student engagement. This is because conceptual teaching is centred around students understanding what they’re working on, becoming immersed in activities, and owning their learning.

 Call to Action 

If you’re interested in reading more about conceptual approaches to teaching mathematics, have a read of this article:

Teaching Mathematics using an approach that is both conceptual and procedural -
Nine keys to the hybrid conceptual-procedural approach

Teachers are best guided through the strategies expressed in these articles via this online course.

Feel free to leave me a comment here.