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RTL2 Assignment 2 Part A:

Assignment 2 Literature Review


“What role does the teacher play in engaging students?”

Mishan (2011) describes features of problem-based learning and the manner in which

it better informs a teachers pedagogical practice. Often referred to as PBL, stems from

constructivist philosophies which is applied throughout a variety of disciplines. Mishan (2011)

discusses the independent learner constructing knowledge with the influence of the student’s

experiences with external environments including peer interactions. Mishan’s (2011) report is

significant piece of literature for shaping the understanding surrounding the role of a teacher

for engaging students in class. Teachers are essential for the creating a positive learning process

for students. Through using features of constructivism whereby, a teacher focuses on the

cognitive conflict a student may encounter, the teacher will be able to weave this method with

other forms of quality pedagogy.

Through De Jongs (2005) democratic lens casts a teacher into a fair, fostering student

empowerment and designing a positive classroom environment. Teachers create opportunity

for negotiation within the classroom reinforcing values and respectful learning. Similar to

problem-based learning that constructivism encourages De Jongs (2005) approach instructs

teachers to look at diversity within the classroom and tailor pedagogical practice according to

individual needs encouraging self- efficacy. De Jong (2005) suggests engagement students

have with their learning process correlates with the behavioural expectations teachers set for

students. In this instance, teachers have a role in relaying explicit instruction and balance

between reward and consequences in addition to positive reinforcement strategies for increased

academic achievement.

According to Anderson, Christenson, Sinclair and Lehr (2004) in order for teachers to

meet their role requirements they need to foster positive behaviours within students in order to

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create effective engagement in the classroom and school climate. Anderson et al. (2004)

measures students engagement through a teacher’s ability to create foundational expectations

of punctual attendance, being attentive, feelings of safety and respect as well as participating

in the learning process and school domain. With in this report, Anderson et al. (2004)

investigates the connection between student drop outs and the role of teachers in preventing

disengagement leading to leaving education programs. Through promoting positive student-

teacher relationship it becomes evident the teacher is a essential part of students positive after

school life chances.

Capara, Babaranelli, Steca and Malone (2006) conducted a study that examined the

self-efficacy of teachers as a measure of job satisfaction and the effect this may have had on

students’ academic achievement. The method used for these results was the ‘Structural

equation modelling analyses’ for understanding the levels of achievement and the correlation

to teacher’s roles. Capara et al. (2006) discuss the importance of understanding how a teacher

meeting the needs of students cause an increase in engagement for between academic

achievement within a classroom compared to a teacher that lacks self-beliefs and self-efficacy.

A teacher that is committed to the altruistic profession of teaching fruitfully will provide

students with stimuli for a rich and positive learning experience. This study is significant for

understanding how effective a teacher’s role is when a teacher is performing at optimum level

with enhanced motivation for positive student engagement. Students may feel disengaged

within a teacher’s class that does not exhibit resiliency and motivation themselves.

Van Uden, Ritzen, & Pieters, (2014) discusses similar perspectives to Capara et al.

(2006) in respect to teacher’s interpersonal behaviour and beliefs for fostering student

engagement. Van Uden et al. (2014) distinguishes engagement through three characteristics

including the level of cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement. Questionnaires were

designed to explain the correlation between a teacher’s role and influence on students

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engagement and learning process. The significant result found through the research strongly

correlated between the three characteristics of engagement and a teacher’s beliefs. These

questionnaires may provide insight into the level of engagement students may develop in a

classroom climate.

Cooper, Kintz and Miness (2016) research provides support to Van Uden et al.’s (2014)

literature through investigating the correlation between teacher agency and students

engagement. Over a three-year period, data was collected in respect to the perceptions teachers

held on student engagement and their reactions to annual surveys students completed. Through

the level of engagement a student was experiencing revealed the differences in support,

reflectiveness and adaptivity a teacher possessed and provided to the students in their classes.

Not only does this reveal the gaps in a student learning process but determines the role a teacher

should have for positive student engagement. These reports are a chief component for a

teachers personal and professional development for promoting the fundamental swing teacher

agency and self-efficacy.

Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris (2004) discuss the multilayered nature of student

engagement, drawing on similar ideas aforementioned through the literature of Van Uden

et al. (2014). A teacher’s role is to promote a positive learning environment whereby a student

engages in respectful and appropriate behaviour in respect to social and academic environments

and activities. This is considered essential in achieving academic success and prevents students

from disengaging with their learning process. The second component that teachers are to

monitor, and nurture is emotional engagement, guiding student in harnessing their positive and

negative reactions to a variety of aspects within their lives including; academics, classmates,

school and their teachers (Fredricks et al. 2004). This reinforces the idea that building a

positive, caring, democratic, diverse, teacher-student relationships are essential elements for

increasing positive academic achievement. Through this role teachers will be creating a

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willingness for students to better engage in school. Lastly, a teacher’s role is to relay curriculum

and develop strategies for students to benefit from maximum cognitive engagement with

content, curriculum and the overall learning process (Fredricks et al. 2004). Through quality

pedagogy teachers are able to promote higher order thinking and encourage critical thinking

for students better understanding and engagement for higher academic achievement. Thus, a

teacher’s role is to gauge whether a student’s behavioural, emotion and cognitive engagement

are positive and performing at an optimum level (Fredricks et al. 2004).

Caro, Lenkeit, & Kyriakides (2016) discusses the strategies teachers implement into

differentiative pedagogy and student learning for effective engagement using a research study.

Part of a teacher’s role for engaging students includes designing strategies for specific subjects

across the curriculum. Caro et al. (2016) consider the curvilinear correlation between a teacher

meeting the needs of student’s cross-cultural perspectives and various socio-economic status

for effective student engagement in school. Caro et al. (2016) provides insight into how

teachers role needs to help students thrive in cognitive engagement, enforce a positive

disciplinary environment, as the evidence reveals a positive correlation between these

components and mathematics performance in this instance. A teacher’s role according to Caro

et al. (2016) is to design an explicit relationship between new curriculum and prior knowledge,

state and reinforce explicit learning goals for higher engagement and higher achievement.

According to Caro et al. (2016) teachers that implement strategies based on constructivist

theory benefit students learning process as it promotes an active engagement within the

classroom environment, furthermore in the scaffolding of knowledge. A teacher’s role is to

empower students to differentiate between representations, ideas, facts and conceptual high

order thinking. In addition, through the constructivist lens a teacher’s role is to encourage

students to explain, compare and evaluate various solutions, results and strategies within and

external to the classroom climate. However, constructivists approaches are questioned

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throughout this literature, raising whether teachers should be applying strategies from this

approach alone would benefit the engagement of students of differentiation.

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Reference

Anderson, A. R., Christenson, S. L., Sinclair, M. F., & Lehr, C. A. (2004). Check &

Connect: The importance of relationships for promoting engagement with

school. Journal of School Psychology, 42(2), 95-113. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2004.01.002

Caprara, G. V., Barbaranelli, C., Steca, P., & Malone, P. S. (2006). Teachers' self-efficacy

beliefs as determinants of job satisfaction and students' academic achievement: A

study at the school level. Journal of School Psychology, 44(6), 473-490.

doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2006.09.001

Caro, D. H., Lenkeit, J., & Kyriakides, L. (2016). Teaching strategies and differential

effectiveness across learning contexts: Evidence from PISA 2012. Studies in

Educational Evaluation, 49, 30-41. doi:10.1016/j.stueduc.2016.03.005

Cooper, K. S., Kintz, T., & Miness, A. (2016). Reflectiveness, Adaptivity, and Support:

How Teacher Agency Promotes Student Engagement. American Journal of

Education, 123(1), 109-136. doi:10.1086/688168


Fredricks, J., Blumenfeld, P., & Paris, A. (2004). School Engagement: Potential of the
Concept, State of the Evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59-109.

De Jong, T. (2005). A Framework of Principles and Best Practice for Managing Student
Behaviour in the Australian Education Context, School Psychology International, Vol
26, Issue 3, 353-370, doi.org/10.1177/0143034305055979

Van Uden J, M., Ritzen, H., & Pieters, J, M. (2014). Engaging students: The role of teacher
beliefs and interpersonal teacher behaviour in fostering student engagement in
vocational education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 37, 21-32.
doi:10.1016/j.tate.2013.08.005

Mishan, F. M. (2011). Whose learning is it anyway? Problem-based learning in language


teacher development. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 5(3), 253-272.
doi:10.1080/17501229.2010.548558

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Dear Potential Participant:
I am working on a project titled “What role the teacher plays for effectively engaging
students?” for the class, ‘Researching Teaching and Learning 2,’ at Western Sydney
University. As part of the project, I am collecting information to help inform the design of a
teacher research proposal.
The purpose of this project will be to collect data specifically to find out what role teachers
have played for promoting effective student engagement in Australian classrooms. The mode
of data collection consists of unstructured interviews. Six interviewees will be asked 5-10
unstructured questions. Through a conversation we would like to discover the relationship
between the strategies teachers may use in a classroom climate and the correlation this has
with the level of student behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement exhibited within a
school climate.
By signing this form, I acknowledge that:
 I have read the project information and have been given the opportunity to discuss the
information and my involvement in the project with the researcher/s.
 The procedures required for the project and the time involved have been explained to
me, and any questions I have about the project have been answered to my satisfaction.
 I consent to a recorded informal interview, that will remain on the device until the
data is processed into an anonymous graph then deleted.
 I understand that my involvement is confidential, and that the information gained
during this data collection experience will only be reported within the confines of the
‘Researching Teaching and Learning 2’ unit, and that all personal details will be de-
identified from the data.
 I understand that I can withdraw from the project at any time, without affecting my
relationship with the researcher/s, now or in the future.

By signing below, I acknowledge that I am 18 years of age or older, or I am a full-time


university student who is 17 years old.
Signed: __________________________________
Name: __________________________________
Date: __________________________________
By signing below, I acknowledge that I am the legal guardian of a person who is 16 or 17
years old, and provide my consent for the person’s participation.
Signed: __________________________________
Name: __________________________________
Date: __________________________________

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Justification

The participations included in this study will begin with three high school teachers

who are experienced with implementing strategies to increased student behavioural,

emotional and cognitive engagement. It will be valuable for the research projects qualitative

results, to gather primary experience through candid authentic conversation and opinion

rather than solely a quantitative survey. The quantitative data will reveal a base data that we

will be able to build on, compare and contrast to existing literature. The qualitative date will

discuss the variances the high school teachers experience in what kind of role they strive

towards. Through the authentic conversations hopefully there will be data to support whether

or not a teacher’s job satisfaction, happiness and self-efficacy has a direct correlation to their

teaching pedagogy with completely remaining anonymous and the complete freedom of

withdrawal from the study. A sample of the questioning used for these teachers will include:

‘How do you define your role for engaging students in your classroom?’ and ‘Do you

monitor a student’s level of engagement from the start till the end of a school semester to

measure how effective your pedagogical strategies are?’, ‘what do you think motivates

students?’, are a few questions for the informal interview; using ‘why do you think that is?’

or ‘how so?’ as probing questions to create an organic flowing conversation.

The next two interviewees will include one preservice teachers as they can reflect on

their secondary schooling experience in relevance to their levels of engagement and how their

teachers influence their learning process. Finally, two experts in the field of education will be

interviewed providing insight into what role teachers should in fact be playing to achieve

maximum emotional, cognitive and behavioural engagement. The education experts in

Sydney will be lecturers or professors who have had experience with the limitations and

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benefits of Constructivist Theory applied in classrooms and Problem- Based Learning. The

preservice teacher and experts will be asked similar questions for discovering the role that

teachers embrace for effective student engagement and compared to the literature above.

Summary:
My literature review was about the role a teacher plays for increasing a student’s engagement
within a classroom for increased academic achievement. Looking through numerous studies
three categories of engagement were common, cognitive engagement, behavioural engagement
and emotional engagement. The studies chosen investigated effects of constructivists theories
and problem-based learning approaches. Positive student-teacher relationships result in
maximising a student’s cognitive, behavioural and emotional positive engagement. Literature
looked at how teacher’s wellbeing and poor job satisfaction could result in poor student
engagement decreasing engagement levels showing the importance of teachers needing to
execute the multifaceted characteristics of self-efficacy, self-value, self-management applying
these practices through quality pedagogical teacher.

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