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The Clarity Series: Creating Passionate Learners
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The Clarity Series: Creating Passionate Learners
Engaging Today's Students for Tomorrow's World

  • Kim Brown - Director of Learning, Oshkosh Area School District
  • Tony Frontier - Assistant Professor, Doctoral Leadership Studies, Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI
  • Donald J. Viegut - Agency Administrator, CESA #8-Northeast Wisconsin

Foreword by Dr. Russell J. Quaglia



July 2015 | 224 pages | Corwin

Increase student engagement and create passionate learners. 

The path that leads a student to drop out of school is typically long, with engagement fading each year until the student stops attending. 

Clearly, increasing student engagement is the key to halting this sequence. But lack of consensus on the definition of “engagement” makes this difficult. 

What schools need is a common engagement literacy – a simple yet nuanced understanding of how to maximize engagement. 

This book offers the first comprehensive system for defining engagement and optimizing it in any student cohort. Inside, you’ll learn:

  • How to improve teacher feedback methods for maximum engagement
  • The power of mindset (for both educators and students). 
  • Key vocabulary terms for furthering the engagement process.

With this book, you can block the path to dropping out and create a community of passionate learners.


 
Foreword by Dr. Russell J. Quaglia
 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
1. An Introduction to Creating Passionate Learners
The Educational Anachronism

 
Beyond the Next Mandate

 
The Intent of Policies and the Ensuing Debates

 
Assumptions Driving the Current Context

 
An Alternate Premise: A Humanist Approach to Education and Cognitivist Approaches to Learning

 
From Past Practice to Next Practice: New Assumptions for Schools in the 21st Century

 
 
2. Committing to Engagement Literacy
Test Scores Tell Only Part of the Story

 
In Search of Something More

 
Defining Student Engagement

 
Why Engagement is Important

 
Mistaking Compliance for Engagement

 
A More Nuanced Viewed: Types of Student Engagement

 
Engagement as Malleable: Classrooms and Schools Matter

 
 
3. The Power of Mindset
Mindset

 
Power of Effort

 
Leveraging Mindset

 
Changing our Mental Models About Mindset to Affect Student Engagement

 
Efficiency for Adults and Effectiveness for Students

 
Making Learner Psychology Relevant

 
Migrating from a Fixed to a Growth Mindset

 
The Implications of Growth Mindset for Emotional, Behavioral, and Cognitive Engagement

 
The Importance of Dispositions

 
Dispositions: Now and in the Future

 
Dispositions Nested in the Framework for Creating Passionate Learners

 
Growth Mindset Dispositions

 
Classroom Strategies for Strengthening Student Dispositions

 
How Growth Mindset Supports Passionate Learners

 
 
4. Internal Dialogue: Reengage Learners Using Teacher Feedback
Internal Dialogue

 
Use Positive Suppositions to Influence Students’ Views of Themselves and Translate to Confidence in the Classroom

 
Develop Students’ Internal Dialogue by Using Language Intentionally

 
Efficacy Through Deliberate Language

 
Using Careful Feedback to Aid in Students’ Reflection

 
Valuing Student Voice in Feedback

 
Formative Assessment and Formative Feedback Strategies

 
When Students Self-Correct

 
The Implications of Internal Dialogue for Emotional, Behavioral, and Cognitive Engagement

 
Internal Dialogue Dispositions

 
How Internal Dialogue Supports Passionate Learners

 
 
5. Self-Determination
Self-Determination Theory

 
Differences Between Autonomy Supportive and Controlling Teachers

 
The Implications of Self-Determination for Emotional, Behavioral, and Cognitive Engagement

 
Self-Determination Dispositions

 
Self-Determination Through the Teacher’s Eyes

 
How Self-Determination Support Passionate Learners

 
 
6. Classroom Culture: Setting the Tone for Engagement
Culture Defined

 
A Culture of Purpose and Commitment to Support Cognitive Engagement

 
Cognitive Engagement as a Culture of Learning or a Culture of Performance?

 
Cognitive Engagement as a Culture of Inquiry or a Culture of Right Answers?

 
A Culture of Purpose and Commitment to Support Emotional Engagement

 
Emotional Engagement as a Culture of Judging or a Culture of Understanding?

 
Emotional Engagement as a Culture of Me or We?

 
A Culture of Purpose to Support Behavioral Engagement

 
Behavioral Engagement in a Culture of Compliance or Authenticity?

 
Behavioral Engagement as a Culture of Low Expectations or Expertise?

 
Passion Deflators

 
The Teacher Whisperer

 
Culture Dispositions

 
How Culture Support Passionate Learners

 
 
7. High-Leverage Reforms
Student Engagement as the Filter for High-Leverage Reform

 
Case Studies: Transactional and Transformational

 
Considerations and Implications in Determining High-Leverage Reform Strategies

 
 
8. Leading the Transformation for Creating Passionate Learners
Planning for Transformational Change and the System Work of School Leaders

 
Transformational Leadership in Action

 
Influencing a Heightened Leader Commitment to Student Engagement

 
Guiding Leaders' Focus on Student Engagement

 
 
Appendix: Effort Tracker
 
Resources
 
Index
Key features
(1) Makes an urgent case for prioritizing student engagement in school improvement efforts and professional development.
(2) Designed to cultivate a common professional vocabulary built around "engagement literacy."
(3) Promotes the use of metrics focused on student engagement.
(4) Underscores the critical connections between mindset, teacher feedback, student passion, and high achievement.
(5) Includes examples of schools that have succesfully implemented and sustained communities of passionate learners.  

Sample Materials & Chapters

Forward

Preface

Chapter 1


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