Student Engagement Paper

Words: 1221
Pages: 5

There is a copious amount of studies related to student engagement in the classroom, specifically, in the area of group work and student choice. However, there are a limited amount of students that deal with the perspective of students when given the choice in group assignments and overall in the classroom. This is most likely due to the lack of importance and credibility that young adolescent students are given. Engagement in most studies are measured by participation, test scores, grades, and other quantitative sampling techniques. Qualitative driven research based on student interviews and surveys tend to take a back seat during most of these studies. This chapter will examine some of the available literature on techniques used in the …show more content…
That with this control of the way you arrange your classroom can have a huge impact on the behaviors of not only your students, but even yourself as the teacher. David Johnson, Roger Johnson, and Edythe Johnson Holubec (2004) indicates that there are seven important reasons to pay close attention to the way that you arrange your classroom:
“1. The physical and spatial aspect of your classroom communicates a symbolic message of what is appropriate behavior and what is expected to happen in the classroom. The way that you arrange the classroom is a message to students. Desks in a row communicate a different message and expectation than desks grouped in small circles.
2. Classroom design can directly facilitate or interfere with academic achievement. The way in which interior space is designed influences student achievement and the actual amounts of time students spend on task.
3. Good spatial definition aids students’ visual and auditory focus. The way in which interior space is designed creates overall visual order and focuses visual attention. It can control
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(2014) provides many important reasons to pay close attention when arranging your classroom. However, that can be impeded by a few things: available furniture, size of classroom, teacher preference, students, and student needs. The other main determinant in classroom arrangement is based on the type of task that is being accomplished. Some teachers like to alternate the arrangement of the room with the current lesson. However, Hastings and Schwieso (1995) determined that seating arrangements tend not to match the type of tasks that are assigned to students. For example, if students are working within a group, the task tends to be generally individual. Nevertheless, classroom arrangement is an important consideration because the physical arrangement of the classroom can contribute to appropriate behaviors, disruptive behaviors, and overall academic achievement (Wannarka & Ruhl,