Investigating Teachers’ Role in Shaping Student Engagement: A case study

Abstract

This case study investigated engagement as a function of psychosocially supportive pedagogy. To examine how teachers enacted their expectations of student performance in their pedagogical actions, 12 days of observations (3.5 hrs per day) were conducted in two physics classes in an institute for remedial learning in the Netherlands (N =︎ 30 students). The study surveyed the availability, accessibility, and quality of learning opportunities and their effects on engagement. Teacher interviews explicated the reasons behind the choice of pedagogy. Furthermore, student questionnaires and focus groups elucidated how the pedagogical actions impacted engagement. The results show that the teachers promoted engagement to a similar extent albeit by different means. According to students’ self-reported accounts, both classes experienced a comparable degree of overall engagement. However, there was a dissimilarity in observed behavioral engagement. The social composition, group dynamics, and students’ psychosocial needs played a role in teachers’ choices of pedagogy and the degree of observed behavioral engagement. The findings from the study suggest an assortment of psychosocially supportive pedagogical actions that can positively mediate student engagement and/or mitigate the effects of extrinsically-driven motivations.