I was asked to find some sources to support this statement I made:

Student engagement is primary. Of course it guarantees learning.

Here are a few. I’m hoping you can add some more :)

Engagement Theories

• Theory of Engagement from the Schlechty Center for School Reform

• Student Engagement (powerpoint) by Amy Reschly, Ph.D. & James Appleton, Ph.D.
  from the presentation:

  Engagement is the primary theoretical model for understanding dropout and is, quite frankly, the bottom line in interventions to promote school completion.

• Student engagement: paradigm change or political expediency? by Christine Hardy, Learning and Teaching Coordinator for the School of Art and Design Nottingham Trent University and Colin Bryson, Director of the Combined Honours Centre, Newcastle University

  from the article:

  Students need to be sufficiently engaged with higher education and learning to achieve their potential and gain from participation. Therefore student engagement is one of the most important concepts to emerge in the latter half of the twentieth century.

• Student Engagement in High School Classrooms from the Perspective of Flow Theory by David J. Shernoffa, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyib, Barbara Schneiderc, and Elisa Steele Shernoffd.

• What we have learned about student engagement in the past twenty years by Lyn Corno and Ellen B. Mandinach

Strategies and how-to’s

• Strengthening Student Engagement by Dr. Richard D. Jones, Author and Senior Consultant, International Center for Leadership in Education, November 2008

• Teachers Can Improve Student Participation: Try Some Different Student Engagement Techniques by Harvey Craft

• 26 Keys to Student Engagement by Angela Maiers

• Cell Phones in the (Language) Classroom: Recasting the Debate By Peyton Jobe (contributed by teachermrw – thanks!)

And, really, I can go on. Some of you know how much I love to do research! But I’m hoping for you to help out here. What proof do you have that engagement improves learning? What do you base that proof on?

Thanks!