Editor’s Note
In this essay, Sam Intrator reflects on the relationship between student engagement and learning. The article is adapted from the foreword to Spotlight on Student Engagement, Motivation, and Achievement, the fifth volume in the Harvard Education Letter Spotlight series.
Volume 25, Number 4
July/August 2009
The “Sweet Spot” of Teaching Practice
Why student engagement is the key to learning
By SAM M. INTRATOR
The “Sweet Spot” of Teaching Practice, continued
The “Sweet Spot” of Teaching Practice: Why student engagement is the key to learning
The “Sweet Spot” of Teaching Practice
I suspect that every teacher who has ever stood before a class clutching a piece of chalk or a marker dreams of routinely striking the sweet spot of practice where students are deeply absorbed in the learning process and exerting intense energy in the task at hand. In these moments, students are focused, concentrating, animated, and eager to persist, even when learning gets difficult.
This is an excerpt from the Harvard Education Letter.
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I suspect that every teacher who has ever stood before a class clutching a piece of chalk or a marker dreams of routinely striking the sweet spot of practice where students are deeply absorbed in the learning process and exerting intense energy in the task at hand. In these moments, students are focused, concentrating, animated, and eager to persist, even when learning gets difficult.
For Further Information
Bridgeland, J. M., Dilulio, J., & Morison, K. (2006).
The silent epidemic: Perspectives of high school dropouts. Washington DC : Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Larson, R. (1984).
Being adolescent: Conflict and growth in the teenage years. New York: Basic Books.
Larson, R. W. (2000).
Toward a psychology of positive youth development. American Psychologist, 55(1), 170–183.
McNeely, C. A., Nonnemaker, J. M., & Blum, R. W. (2002).
Promoting school connectedness: Evidence from the national longitudinal study of adolescent health. Journal of School Health, 72(4), 138.
Moses, E. (2000). The $100 billion allowance: Accessing the global teen market. New York: John Wiley.
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10421
National Research Council Institute of Medicine (2003).
Engaging schools: Fostering high school students' motivation to learn. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Steinberg, L. D., Brown, B. B., & Dornbusch, S. M. (1996).
Beyond the classroom: Why school reform has failed and what parents need to do. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Wilson, B. L., & Corbett, H. D. (2001).
Listening to urban kids: School reform and the teachers they want. Albany: State University of New York Press.
