Engagement within the Classroom | ITAS | Seneca Polytechnic

Engaging students can be challenging, and understanding how adults (18 years and older) learn can be the first step in choosing different strategies to engage adults in learning.

Here is a video about how adults learn: How adults learn (3:29)

Here’s some more information on how learning works from eCampusOntario: How learning works

Knowing that your students learn better with a combination of seeing, hearing, and doing, as well as discussion and experience can help you choose which engagement strategies you may want to try in your classroom.  While there may be times when you need to lecture, “best practice” dictates that you do not engage in any activity for more than 15 or 20 minutes before shifting the learning activity – add an active learning technique, use a poll, use a classroom discussion, ask the class for examples or give them a problem to solve.  Involving and engaging your students leads to better learning and retention.

Active learning is any approach to instruction in which all students are asked to engage in the learning process. Active learning stands in contrast to “traditional” modes of instruction in which students are passive recipients of knowledge from an expert (Source: University of Minnesota Centre for Education and Innovation).

Here are some tools that can help you engage your students in the classroom:

• Engagement Strategies from McGill University 
• Active Learning Resources from the University of Minnesota
• Engagement Techniques (11 short videos) from Durham College
• Videos of Engagement Strategies
• Kahoot 
• Mentimeter 
• Poll Everywhere 
• AnswerGarden 
• Socrative 

Keep in mind that you need to ensure that all teaching, learning, practice and assessment materials are inclusive and meet the needs of all students.  To understand more about universal design for learning (UDL), please click on Universal Design for Learning Guidelines and click for more information about Inclusive Teaching.