![\"Students](\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Students-in-Lecture-300x209-300x209.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post originally appeared at Getting Smart<\/a> on September 11, 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n How to engage learners? It\u2019s a perpetual question for teachers and trainers. If it\u2019s human development you\u2019re after, engagement isn\u2019t the goal but it is the engine. You won\u2019t achieve your aims without it, especially if the desired learning requires hard sustained work.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve been studying engagement and cataloging templates drawing from traditional research and new technology-enhanced approaches to user experience (UX) and learner experience (LX).<\/p>\n Many instructional designers use Terry Anderson\u2019s interaction framework<\/a>: learner to content, learner to instructor, and learner to peer learner interaction. These are important constructs but they don\u2019t tell you how to structure a learning experience.<\/p>\n David Merrill<\/a> provides a bit more guidance in his five principles of instructional design:<\/p>\n A designer admitted that \u201cDesigning an effective and efficient \u201cinstructional transaction\u201d is the great mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n While there are many variations, there appear to be six basic strategies for capturing engagement and initiating a learning cycle:<\/p>\n These six engagement templates progress from instructor- and content-centric to learner-centric (i.e., low to high agency). They draw upon 26 impulses<\/a> that motivate a commitment of time and energy.<\/p>\n Teachers might call these lesson plan templates, but with the expanding array of professional and informal learning this is an attempt to build a broader framework applicable to impact games, meetings, conference sessions, open resources, and professional development.<\/p>\n The most common historical form of teaching is expository.<\/p>\n Launching a learning cycle with an assignment or task followed by a demonstration of learning. There are many variations ranging from simple to elaborate multi-step projects.<\/p>\n Starting with a performance assessment can be a great way to capture attention and produce gap awareness (i.e., distance from a goal or standard).<\/p>\n Starting with a difficult problem can be engaging, or just overwhelming. More difficult and open ended than a prompt (above), a problem requires the learner or team to develop and test a hypothesis.<\/p>\n Launching a learning cycle with a stimulating or emotional experience can be an effective hook launching a powerful learning cycle. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Often launched with brainstorming, this engagement process starts with learner interests before making a choice for inquiry. It is the most learner-centered and least prescriptive and, as a result, outcomes vary; it is the most useful for developing learner vision and fostering creativity and may be the least effective for conveying specific concepts.<\/p>\n Conclusion.<\/b> The lesson is simple: before starting your next class, meeting, or conference presentation with a 15 minute lecture consider other engagement templates. It\u2019s important to know your audience, be clear about your objective, and choose the engagement type with learner experience in mind.<\/p>\n And, while engagement is key to initiation and persistence, \u201cIt is important that teachers and presenters remember that engagement is not the outcome,\u201d said John Larmer. \u201cThe tool for engagement should align tightly with what you want the learners to know, do and transfer after the lesson, workshop, or project. When engagement is the outcome we can get low level intellectual challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n Are there other engagement strategies you would add?<\/p>\n See also:<\/p>\n Sydney Schaef, M.BA., M.Ed., is an educator, entrepreneur, and school design consultant. She currently works as a Mastery Learning Designer at reDesign<\/a> and a design consultant for Building 21<\/a>. She served at the School District of Philadelphia from 2013-2015 in the Office of New School Models, and prior to that, served as Founder and Executive Director of a 501c3 nonprofit organization that led innovative education and youth development programs in East Africa. Follow Sydney on Twitter at @sydneyschaef<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","mapsvg_location":""},"legacy_category":[104,106],"issue":[368,383],"location":[],"class_list":["post-6668","cw_post","type-cw_post","status-publish","hentry","legacy_category-how-to","legacy_category-resource","issue-issues-in-practice","issue-rethink-instruction"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
Engagement Type > Starts With<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n
xPository<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n
\n
Prompt<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n
Performance<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n
\n
Problem<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n
Personal Experience<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n
Possibility<\/b><\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n