During a pandemic, what are the most important aspects of online engagement? What are students’ reasons for engaging or not engaging in school—especially remotely? How can we ourselves as educators stay motivated as we grapple with new realities?
Students at MC Living Lab school Urban Assembly Maker Academy collaborating digitally in their classroom.
During this time of upheaval, many educators are reporting students are showing up and engaging less in school. If this is happening in your classroom, a focus on student mindsets could help. Mindsets are beliefs we have about learning and about ourselves as learners, and are fundamental for engagement and motivation in a given context. Three major mindsets are essential for optimal learning: Growth Mindset, Belonging Mindset, and Value Mindset (also called Purpose for Learning). Each of these mindsets is powerful on its own. Combined, they can be transformative.
If students are not attending or completing work, we need to investigate all possible causes: lack of access to technology or resources, a living environment that is not conducive to learning, extra responsibilities to support the household, family stress, illness, or other trauma. We should reach out to students and families in whatever ways we can to find out what is happening, whether it be through calls, texts, emails, anonymous surveys that can help schools see patterns of issues that are affecting students, or other creative means of communication. Once we have a sense of what is causing a lack of engagement and address primary needs as much as possible, we can increase our focus on learning mindsets to support engagement.
Please do whatever you can to take pressure off both students and yourself. It might not be possible to get through the volume of course material at the level of depth that you were able to before the pandemic hit—in fact, trying to do that can be discouraging and demotivating for your students, as well as for you. Be mindful of the variety of acute stresses the pandemic is causing—isolation, fear, lack of security, grief—as well as ongoing stresses many students face—such as structural racism, homophobia, homelessness, and food insecurity. At this time of disrupted daily life and learning, we need to ease additional pressures of school.
It’s especially important in a time of crisis to approach engagement issues in a supportive, non-punitive way in order for learners to feel as safe and at ease as possible. This fosters trust, motivation, and a sense of agency for learners. For example, it is important to provide assignments and deadlines not as inflexible expectations, but instead as structures that can support students to direct their own learning.
Three essential mindsets for optimal engagement and learning
Growth Mindset: the understanding that one learns through engaging in challenges, that progress is possible with a combination of effort and useful strategies.
Belonging Mindset: a belief that one belongs—both socially and academically—in a learning community.
Value Mindset: a belief that what one is learning is meaningful and relevant to one’s life now and in the future, that there is a purpose for engaging in the learning at hand.
Remember: Much of what worked for you in the classroom can still translate now. While we need to be responsive within a vastly changed context, many of the effective practices you already use can be adapted. Trust what you know and apply it. The mindset strategies here can add to your distance learning toolkit, and can help when you get back to school, too.
To see this in one-pager form, check out our mindsets and motivation citywide guidance here.