Enhancing Affective Engagement through Needs-Based Learning Strategies

1. Blended learning 2 Generating a need to know and sustaining interest and affective engagement

2. Affective engagement - Getting started , commonly involves generating a “need to know.” Some methods:  – an intriguing puzzle or problem  – a current or past-contentious issue – an open-ended problem solving activity  – deficiencies in the current explanation –starting with what they do and do not know – students’ questions or opinions (especially if in conflict)  – high relevance to their personal lives  – important to something they need to be able to do in the future  – a dramatic experience 

3. Sustaining affective engagement:Five sources of student interest • challenge • variety • shared ownership/intellectual control • relevance • importance

4. Challenge • A sense of intellectual challenge, and of regular progress in meeting the challenge • This means there is a focus on the big ideas/key skills and on progress in learning about these -I am getting somewhere

5. Variety Change in procedure (type of task), resources used, class organization, teacher style.

6. A sense of shared intellectual control. There are many ways of achieving this: • work from students’ ideas and experiences • promote and use student questions and suggestions • students modify or extend a task or activity • give students choices over aspects of the work • the students work out part or all of the content or the instructions.

7. Relevance • To their personal lives • To society • They have views/opinions in the area • They have expertise in the area

8. Importance Do I need this for: • A future job • Some other aspect of future life • Something they are doing nowdo not overplay this