How do we Keep Students Engaged in Middle and High School?

The effort to encourage students to remain in school focuses on increasing achievement, a sense of belonging, and positive behaviors. The goal was completing high school; the target groups were middle and high school students, where disengagement begins to develop.  In elementary this is less likely to be the issue but it happens.

Age of Technology

A technology-rich society engages students differently than the culture their parents experienced.  Which is important to notice when interacting with students. Many engagement strategies have emerged from the need to get students to engage in learning and stay in school but in primary teachers struggle when it comes to focusing on a task for an extended period of time.  In the case of elementary, building stamina takes time and student interest takes creativity.  We must connect with students to really understand their learning styles, strengths, and preferences. Using Carl Jung's theory, student engagement can improve through the student's personality type.

Extrovert: Extroverts engage by drawing energy from others, prefer to work in groups and are very social. Extroverts like to solve problems, teach others to solve issues, and to work in groups. About 60% of learners are extroverts, engage through direct experience, good at leading, can engage without guidance.

Introvert: Introverted students engage on their own, drawing their ideas internally, by brainstorming, inward reflections, and by theorizing. About 40% of students are introverts, prefer to work alone, like to listen, observe before trying new skills.

Sensing: Focusing on the physical environment were the Sensing learners showing interest in the external world. Sensing style accounts for about 65% of learners who observe the world with a keen eye. They focus on the present, are practical and reasonable, draw from experience and common sense to solve problems.

Intuitive Learners: The intuitive learner considers potential outcomes, ideas, and possibilities they look at the big picture, not the details. Around 35% of learners are Intuitive; they like to work in short sessions, not always finishing what they started. Intuitive learners work from theories and abstract ideas that create new experiences, situations, and challenges.

The Thinker: The thinking learner seems to focus on the structure and function of objects and information. Males account for 55%, females at 35% of thinkers, who don't like basing decisions on emotions, but preferably on logic and reason.

Feeling: Decisions are based on feelings and emotions with this learning style and are interested in social harmony, relationships, and feelings. Forty-five percent of feelers are male, and 65% are female and are more interested in people and their feelings. While in group settings, the Feeler creates excitement, enthusiasm, and are in tune with their emotions.

The Judge: Judging learners are quite decisive and may decide before they learn everything they need to know about a situation. About 45% of learners are judging, are highly organized, structured with strong opinions, and don't like mystery or ambiguity.

Perceiving: Making impulsive decisions in response to changing situations or new information is a trait of the Perceiving learner. Around 55% of people perceive learners, don't care for structure or organization, are flexible, adaptable, and tend to leave projects unfinished.

Final Thought

The challenge of keeping disadvantaged students engaged comes with a heavy burden, getting at-risk students to engage and stay in school. Utilizing Jung's personality type as a learning tool to identify the different learning types has its advantages. The learning styles can be combined to fit the personality of each student to ensure positive engagement.

Resources:

Cherry, Kendra (2019). Learning Styles Based on Jung's Theory of Personality.VeryWellMind Updated April 01, 2019Cherry, Kendra (2019). Overview of VARK Learning Styles. (Which learning Style Do You Have?)VeryWellMind Updated, July 23, 2019.Taylor, Leah & Parsons, Jim (2011). Improving Student Engagement. Current Issues In Education, Vol. 14, Number 1. ISSN 1099-839X