4 Practices That Can Enhance Student Engagement in A Programming Course
Student Engagement is vital however not easy to achieve
Student engagement is one of the most crucial factors in a classroom. It not only improves student performance but also determines the mental of a teacher. However, bringing this concept to life and practicing it in a real classroom, especially for an introductory programming course, is not so easy. There are many factors that affect the implementation of these practices.
When student engagement goes downhill, teachers always find them reaching out for the prop box. From time-sucking videos to draining audios and exhausting activities, they try it all to grab attention. NCBI believes that using media in the classroom can decrease the cognitive load, thereby increasing student engagement and active learning. However, going overboard with these teaching aids can make the students distracted. Therefore, it is essential to understand that your students are not engaged by the things you do, but they are intrigued by you.
Keeping this in mind, you need to develop strategies to keep your students hooked. However, these practical strategies will differ from student to student as not all of them are alike. On that note, a holistic approach can be implemented to grab the student’s attention in class truly. Read on to enlighten yourself with the factors that affect student engagement and the strategies that can be applied.
4 Approaches That Can Improve Student Engagement
- Course Content
Learning and understanding programming requires a lot of skill. Students commonly master this skill by practicing programming hands-on. This is why teachers often ask students to write their programs as a part of their homework or assignment. However, not all students feel particularly motivated to write these assignments. Instead, most of them reach out to swift programming homework help to get the job done. The factor that contributed to this condition is the course content. It does not arouse student excitement or allow them to comprehend the course. To break free from such boredom, perform these strategies:
- Problem Based Learning
One of the primary reasons that make the students disengaged is the fact that they cannot relate the problems in the exercise to that of real life. Most students feel that the issues they encounter while writing a problem will not affect them when they work as programmers. To cater to this, all of the exercises should be molded to better fit students’ expectations to better fit students’ expectations and align with the problems they may face in the near future.
- Build Prior Knowledge
As a teacher, it is vital for you to understand that most of the students who enroll in a programming course have no background knowledge in this discipline. Therefore, introducing this subject as a new entity might make it challenging for the students to comprehend and retain. Therefore, try to bridge the gap by linking the concept to the events they have or will experience in real life.
- Learn By Doing
Since programming requires hands-on knowledge, just learning a bunch of codes will not help. Instead, ask the students actually to do the exercise. Try and make them install new software on their device and reward them for doing so. Moreover, you can ask students to carry their laptops to class to write the codes directly. This will enable them to see the immediate results and keep them motivated. Balance the time between theoretical and practical knowledge.
- Academic Atmosphere
The atmosphere of your classroom plays a vital role in motivating your students. Most students love to invest their time in chatting with their friends rather than practicing the exercises. As a result, they are driven to hire paper help services to get their task done. The reason for student apathy is probably because of the difficulty level of the study or that they are too shy to clarify their doubts with the teacher. This is a common problem in most classrooms. Therefore, here are some strategies that can help:
- Boost Collaboration
Encouraging teamwork is an excellent way to improve student engagement. You can either enhance group discussion or give them a group assignment to complete. There are always more intelligent students than others but are reluctant to share their knowledge when asked. Involving them in group tasks will allow them to share their knowledge openly, and the less able students will learn a thing or two.
- Encourage Communication
Communication is the key to engagement in class. It can be communication between peers or even between teacher and student. As a teacher, you should be warm and approachable so that the students can come up to you any time. Try to get closer to your students during assignment time. Give more attention to the weak ones. Encourage students to speak up and get their doubts clarified. Boost both verbal and no-verbal intimacy to make your students more open.
- The Role of The Teacher
The teacher’s role in class is also a determining factor for student engagement. For example, if you are strict and give a lot of assignments without making the concept clear, students might not feel interested in your class. Instead, they will find ways to escape, and your class engagement level will drop down to sub-zero. Therefore, you should provide a strategic assessment rather than giving straightforward judgment. Here are some strategies that can help to enhance engagement:
- Motivate Your Students
The common practice in most classrooms is that teachers just come, impart knowledge, and leaves. They think it is their responsibility to deliver the concept and leave the students to it. What they forget is that it is also their role to intrigue the students and motivate them to learn what they are supposed to. Therefore, be a motivator than just a provider. Explain the critical parts and allow the students to explore more about the topic on their end.
This will facilitate and boost researching skills and improve their essential qualities of thinking. Motivate them to drive themselves towards enriching their own knowledge bank.
- Provide Feedback
Teachers typically follow two types of assessment-summative and formative. Summative assessments are gathering information for reporting and recording purposes. In contrast, formative assessments are done to improve learning. In a constructive setting, you can receive feedback on your teaching methods and techniques to identify the gaps and work on them. Giving feedback should work both ways.
You as a teacher should impart improvement areas to your students, and they should also be allowed to do the same. This will create an eternal bond, and you will be able to work better.
- Student’s Point of View
The last factor that concerns students’ engagement is students themselves. You cannot miraculously change anything if the students are not willing to cooperate. However, it is your job to lead the way and drive them towards self-improvement. Here are some approaches that you can implement to push the students to work on themselves.
- Increase Self-Efficacy in Students
Most students lack self-belief and confidence. This is when they are incapable of solving problems that come their way. Self-efficacy builds a person’s motivation to achieve the desired outcome. If a student lacks this skill, they will either be too quick to give up or might not put in their best efforts to find out the solution to their problems.
You can wrap up easy problems in difficult situations to make them feel like advanced cases to build this. Then, when able to find out the solutions, students will feel good about themselves, gradually increasing their confidence.
- Provide Help When Required
Managing a big classroom can be challenging, and it might not be possible to cater to every student’s needs. However, to overcome this, you can encourage collaboration, and they can learn to solve their problems among themselves. If at all they feel they still cannot derive the desired outcome, you can then extend your help.
Moreover, as a teacher, you will be able to identify if the problem is genuine and then only entertain to solve it.
Final Thoughts
Improving student engagement can increase their performance and potential. However, the approaches are not the same for every student. The strategies as mentioned above can facilitate the holistic development of every student and enrich their knowledge to achieve their goals.
Applying these strategies in class will enable your students to be participative and be keen on completing their tasks.
Author’s Bio
Jordan Mason hailing from Texas, United States, is a student counselor. He has 8 years of considerable experience in tackling student issues to boost their academic grades. Currently, he is associated with Assignmenthelp.us and provides engineering assignment help to students.
