Running head: DOMAIN C LITERATURE REVIEW 1

Domain C Literature Review

Julie Lansing

National University

April 26, 2019

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Abstract

This article will be discussing ways to engage and support student learning. The article that I

have reviewed is from Malissa Gresalfi and Sasha Barab, Learning for a Reason: Supporting

Forms of Engagement by Designing Tasks and Orchestrating Environments. The article goes

into different ways to help students be engaged in the learning situations that they are placed

into. One of the main ways the article discusses student engagement is through initiating whole

class discussions. I will delve further into this during my paper.

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Domain C Literature Review

After reading the article, Learning for a Reason: Supporting Forms of Engagement by

Designing Tasks and Orchestrating Environments, by Melissa Gresalfi and Sasha Brab (2011), I

have found new ways to engage my students and the importance of keeping all students engaged

in each lesson that we choose to do. The article goes into how classroom culture is a big part of

students being able to want to be engaged in lessons and learning, if more students are involved

in the lesson and participating than there should be more involvement all around.

From the article, there were two different ideas about student engagement, one “Some

theorists consider engagement to be a property of an individual, believing that students either are

or are not engaged as an aspect of their personalities.” (2011). I think this can be partially true, in

some subjects that are taught, but it is our jobs as educators to make all students engaged in a

variety of topics that they are studying. The article goes onto discuss how a student might not

like science and therefore does not become engaged in any of the science lessons, but this

doesn’t take into consideration the different ways that the teacher can help with the engagement

of studying and learning about science. I want to help students gain an appreciation of all

subjects, so I take it as my job to create an engaging environment as much as I can with lessons

so students will want to learn about new things.

In contrast to the previous quote about student engagement, “Others have demonstrated

the extent to which engagement changes situationally and can thus be understood as an

interactive accomplishment among students, the task they are working on, and the aspects of the

classroom practices.” (2011). I agree with this perspective, depending on what students are

doing, it depends on how engaged they are going to be. When I am teaching, if I am just

lecturing students will start to tune out because they aren’t doing anything with the information
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that is being given to them. When they are able to collaborate with one another and we have

group discussions or partner discussions, the students are more engaged in the lesson. Recently

my class worked in pairs to complete a math review, they were all completely engaged in the

lesson and while completing the egg math, they were able to learn some new information as well

as review math strategies that they would need for the upcoming state test. This is the kind of

engagement that gets students learning and wanting to be involved. I wish that it would be

possible to do this for every lesson, and maybe when I get more experience, I will be able to do

this more often. I do try to have students get out of their seat and collaborate with others as much

as possible, so they are wanting to be engaged in their learning.

In conclusion, this article brought up some valid points regarding keeping students

engaged and the best ways to work engagement in the classroom. Some students may simply not

be engaged due to how the classroom is set up or where they are seated, while other students

may not be interested in the lesson that is being taught and will have to talk or move around in

order for them to feel engaged and connected to the lesson. Each student will feel differently

about how they want to be engaged in lessons and as a teacher that is our responsibility to work

to find a balance for all students.

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References

Gresalfi, M., & Barab, S. (2011). Learning for a reason: supporting forms of engaement by

designing tasks and orchestrating environments. Theory Into Practice, Vol. 50 Issue 4,

p.300-310.