Identify and discuss how teachers can improve the amount of time students are engaged.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans: Responses should include:
• Teachers can improve the amount of time students spend engaged by improving their teaching behaviors.
• What teachers do in the classroom greatly impacts student learning. Teaching behaviors during instruction that make a difference in student achievement include such things as questioning strategies, pacing, and monitoring of student progress.
• Teachers using effective teaching practices ask students to respond at least sometimes to questions as a group and other times to answer questions individually.
• The teacher’s pace is another critical factor. Effective teachers, including special education teachers, maintain a brisk pace through the curriculum. Well-established procedures for daily routine activities can enhance the pace of a lesson.
• Frequent and active monitoring of student behavior is another critical element of effective teaching. Teachers monitor student behavior in a variety of ways and on different levels. Effective teachers are particularly alert to students during seat work.
• In addition to teaching behaviors, a second category that affects student on-task behavior is instructional management, or the manner in which teachers design their classroom to enhance the learning process.
• Effective teachers set up routines for transitions such as getting materials ready, collecting homework, and preparing to board the bus.
• Effective teachers also involve students in correcting papers and other housekeeping tasks.
• Students of effective teachers rarely have to wait for the teacher’s help.
• Effective teachers are also effective behavior managers. Effective behavior management is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for student learning to occur. That is, effective teacher management sets the stage or provides the opportunity for other variables to influence student achievement. Well-managed classrooms have well-defined rules for appropriate behaviors.
Learning Objective: Explain why and provide examples of how teachers can influence student learning by improving allocated and student-engaged learning time.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Engaged Learning Time
Difficulty Level: Hard