What is Student Engagement?

I hear the term "student engagement" all the time now. A few weeks ago I was watching the local Edmonton news and an item came up about a high school just outside of Edmonton and how they were engaging students. I put down my paper and watched and listened for this new work on engagement. On the screen we watched as a school spokesperson spoke rather excitedly about the new way their school was engaging students. They had loaded the students into the gym and brought in a rock band to play a few tunes and then a motivational speaker spent some time with the students. The spokesperson stated that their school was attempting something new to engage students. (although all sitting and gitting seemed rather disengaging but it got me thinking about my teaching career.....)

Ah! memories of 1979 and my role as high school students' union advisor. We brought in a band, had them play some popular tunes (I remember the guitar solo for Free Bird going over well and then students were fed a motivational speech about this being the time of their lives (more on that piece of advice in a later blog). If we have to go back to 1979 to get our ideas on engagement for the 21st century, I do not think we are anywhere near the 21st century. We are still stoking the pot bellied stove with ideas of what we think is engaging for students and clapping together the chalk brushes that contain our lessons while the desks are screwed into the floor.

So what is student engagement? Is it my memories of 1979? Or is it something else, something with less control and less speech making and more listening. I look forward to answers from the future.