Only about one-third of Canadian students say they are interested in class, or motivated to do well, reports a new study of more than 32,000 children and teens from Grades 5 to 12.
Although two-thirds of the students surveyed participate in at least one extracurricular club or sport, and 69 per cent have good attendance records, just 37 per cent feel they were “intellectually engaged” in math and language arts, says the study by the Canadian Education Association (CEA), a non-profit research and policy group.
“Across Canada, many students have told CEA that classrooms and learning as they are currently organized are not working,” says the report. “They are not working for students who can keep up with the pace set by the lectures, textbooks and tests, and they are not working for those who cannot … the message has been clear: Students do not want learning made easy, they want it to mean something.”
More than 90 schools across the country took part in the survey, “What did you do in school today,” part of a multi-year project looking at how students feel about their education and how schools and teachers can improve.
It measured student engagement in three ways: Socially (participation in extracurricular clubs/ sports, a sense of belonging); academic (arriving on time, attending class regularly); and intellectual (interest and motivation to do well, feel education is relevant).
What the report found is that, as students progress through the grades, their engagement drops on all levels, especially intellectually.
“It’s not clear that intellectual engagement is happening,” says Penny Milton, chief executive officer of CEA. “That’s the kind of learning that requires you to think, and think deeply, and it may not be happening for many kids.
“They’ve learned that if they memorize the facts, and if they can answer questions, that’s what school requires. What we could argue is that to become good learners, they need to become thinkers.”
Even for students who move on to post-secondary education, Milton says it appears they are less well-prepared than they used to be.
“Somehow, there’s this sense that even kids who are successful aren’t as competent or as confident as learners as we need them to be.”
But what can schools do to help?
The study clearly points at teaching methods and suggests that they alone could narrow the achievement gap between students, even overcoming such obstacles as poverty or other risk factors.
“I do, of course, think that students’ ranges of abilities is real,” Milton says. “However, what I’m talking about is, could we actually imagine reaching a minimal standard for the vast majority of people?”
The study suggests teaching methods can affect student engagement and depth of learning.
“Work needs to be relevant, meaningful and authentic,” Milton says.
So, rather than simply teach about ecosystems in biology class, for example, teachers can explain how ecosystems exist in other aspects of life, such as in politics or international relationships. “They then have access to a way of thinking they can apply to other fields.”
Milton adds that teachers and schools need to make better use of in-class time, and that schools need to be organized around learning.
For Gorick Ng, the student council president at Toronto’s Marc Garneau Collegiate, participating in extracurricular activities helps spark those critical connections.
“I think students need to find their niche,” he says. “A lot view school as a place where you sit down, soak up whatever’s on the blackboard and not take it any further.”
Although the study suggests high expectations from teachers will rub off on students, Ng says teens also have to think big.
“Students should have high expectations for themselves,” he says. “It’s not about living up to teachers’ expectations, but building goals for yourself and achieving them.”
