| Students are the subjects of learning activities,and the degree of student engagement in the classroom directly affects the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning.American educator Peter Lane once said,"Exposure,comprehensive analysis,and practical engagement are the three main elements of learning." The learning styles such as independent learning,cooperative learning and inquiry learning advocated by the new curriculum reform are also based on the premise of students’ active engagement.Thus,it seems that educational researchers both at home and abroad have emphasized the importance of student engagement in the classroom.Therefore,this paper has some theoretical value and practical significance to explore this topic.Based on the collection and analysis of relevant literature on student engagement at home and abroad,the author proposes three questions for this study:(1)What are the dimensions of students’ engagement in high school English classrooms,such as behavioral engagement,cognitive engagement,and affective engagement?(2)What are the factors that influence student engagement in high school English classrooms? To what extent do these factors affect students’ engagement?(3)What are the suggestions for promoting student engagement in high school English classrooms in response to the above survey?Using 790 high school students from three high schools in Harbin City as the research subjects and using questionnaires,interviews,and classroom observations,the author found the following problems with student engagement in the current high school English classroom:(1)the overall level of student engagement is average,behavioral engagement > affective engagement > cognitive engagement(2)the overall level of student behavioral engagement is not deep(3)the negative affective experience of student affective engagement is high.For example,anxiety and boredom.(4)Students’ cognitive engagement scored the lowest,with a high sense of dependence and cognitive strategies staying at a shallow level.(5)Behavior,cognition,and affective engagement have a significant positive influence on each other,and they are related to each other.Through the analysis of related literature,the author summarized that the factors affecting students’ engagement mainly include: students themselves,teachers’ teaching,classroom environment,peer influence,and parental support,among which students themselves mainly includes,self-efficacy and learning motivation;teachers’ teaching includes teaching skills and content,teachers’ questioning and feedback;classroom environment includes classroom atmosphere and teaching tools;peer influence includes peer support and peer pressure;and parental support includes communication and engagement in activities at home.The data collected through the questionnaire was used to develop a structural equation model using SPSS 20.0 software to determine that these factors had a significant influence on student engagement,with the degree of influence ranked in descending order as: teacher teaching > parental support > students themselves >classroom environment > peer influence.In view of the problems of student engagement as revealed by the above survey and the scientific analysis of its influencing factors,the author combines the valuable suggestions of front-line English teachers and proposes strategies to improve students’ behavioral,cognitive,and emotional engagement from the perspectives of students themselves,teachers’ teaching,classroom environment,peer influence,and parental support,in order to provide some directions for creating an effective and dynamic student-centered classroom. |
