Instructions

Select the example that best describes your most frequent current practice even though it may not represent your instructional goals. You may select only one example for each indicator.

You may scroll back and change your responses. When you have worked your way through, you will find a "Graph My Responses" button at the bottom of this document. Click the "Graph My Responses" button and a graph of your responses will be displayed on-screen. Use the graph to help clarify your thinking about what types of activities you would like to use more frequently in your classroom.

Indicators of Engaged Learning

Responsibility for Learning
Students take charge and are self-regulated learners. They define learning goals and problems that are meaningful to them and understand how specific activities relate to these goals. Students are also involved in setting and using standards of excellence to evaluate whether they have achieved their goals.

Teachers set learning goals, make assignments, monitor progress, and grade assignments.
Students discuss learning goals with their teacher, are given a range of options for assignments, take some responsibility for monitoring progress, and are aware of assessment standards.
Students work with their teacher to set learning goals and assessment standards and have a range of options for assignments and opportunities to design learning activities. They are responsible for setting timelines and monitoring progress toward completion of their goals.

Strategic
Students continually develop and refine learning and problem solving strategies. They apply and transfer knowledge to solve problems creatively.

Most students' work involves determining the right answer on pencil and paper tasks.
Students learn to use a variety of instructional strategies and resources, but not how to select among and apply them to unfamiliar tasks.
Students are able to select resources and strategies thoughtfully as well as apply them to unfamiliar tasks.

Energized by Learning
Engaged learners derive excitement and pleasure from learning and are intrinsically motivated.

Students complete required assignments and are motivated mainly by grades and competition.
Students are actively engaged in their work and take pride in doing a good job.
Students are so excited by learning that they spend extra time and effort doing their work.

Collaborative
Students have and value the skills to work with others. They understand that learning is social, and they understand that many problems/issues have multiple points of view.

Students work mostly at seatwork and individual tasks.
Students work in cooperative groups with clearly defined tasks.
Students work in collaborative groups in which the groups make decisions regarding planning, implementing, and evaluating their work, making explicit use of multiple and differing points of view.

Authentic
Tasks bear a close relationship to real world problems in the home and workplaces of today and tomorrow. They build on life experiences, require in-depth work, benefit from frequent collaboration, and are of relevance and interest to learner(s).

Most tasks are pencil and paper, often seatwork. Students respond to recall questions provided by teachers and textbooks.
The class discusses how the skills they learn and their instructional tasks apply to real world situations.
Tasks derive authenticity from student interests, work with experts, societal value, and public assessments. They often involve inquiry and/or research, but not as an end in itself.

Challenging
Tasks are complex and typically involve sustained amounts of time. Students must stretch their thinking and social skills in order to be successful.

Tasks focus on the basics, and there is much attention to mastery of specific skills and facts, e.g., drill and practice, recall questions, integrated learning systems, decontextualized math problems, or workbook pages.
Tasks are novel, involve higher order thinking, and require many days or weeks to complete.
Tasks are complex and designed so that the students have to stretch conceptually and take greater responsibility for learning.

Multidisciplinary
Disciplines are wholly integrated in order to solve problems or address issues.

Tasks are content-specific and designed to focus on specific skills and concepts.
Tasks are content-specific but connections are made across disciplines through chronological or thematic alignment. Teachers maintain their discipline-centered expertise while attempting to help students make connections across disciplines.
Multiple disciplines must be integrated in order to complete a task or solve a problem. Teachers and other support staff, e.g., library media specialists, take responsibility for more than one discipline and assist students in making connections across disciplines.

Performance-Based
Assessments are meaningful, challenging experiences that involve presenting students with an authentic task, project, or investigation, and then observing, interviewing and/or examining their artifacts and presentations to assess what they actually know and can do.

Students primarily take pencil and paper tests with combinations of short answer and essay questions, emphasizing recall and discussion of facts.
Students conduct investigations or produce written or oral presentations for their teacher and class, and the teacher evaluates their performance.
Students conduct investigations or produce written or oral presentations for authentic purposes and audiences. The presentations are evaluated by the teacher, the audience, and themselves.

Generative
Students and their teachers create the assessment criteria and/or tools so that they are meaningful and generate knowledge.

Assessment standards are set by the teacher and shared with students, often after the work is graded.
Assessment standards and tools are developed by the teacher and fully explained to students before they begin their work.
Assessment standards and tools are discussed, created, agreed upon, and used by both the teacher and students to judge and report on the quality of their products and performances.

Seamless and Ongoing
Instruction and assessment are integrated; assessment of the process and products occurs throughout the instruction.

Assessment occurs after instruction and both teacher and students view it as separate from the instruction, e.g., students read and discuss a chapter and then take a unit test.
The teacher defines assessment criteria at the beginning of instruction and uses them at designated check points and at the end of instruction.
The teacher and students generate assessment criteria at the beginning of their instructional task and use that criteria to measure the process and products of their learning throughout their work as well as at the end. The teacher frequently checks for understanding by listening to student discussions and probing the depths of their knowledge while students engage in self-assessment.

Interactive
The course of instruction responds to student needs and interests, and students can make key decisions regarding their learning.

Students respond to questions posed by the teacher and have some choices with regard to assignments and work.
Students have opportunities to select among projects to match their interests with assignments.
Students have frequent opportunities to communicate interests and problems to the teachers and other support staff as well as to design and plan their work.

Generative
Students are encouraged to construct and produce knowledge in meaningful and deep ways. They solve problems, conduct meaningful inquiry, engage in reflection, and build a repertoire of effective strategies.

Students solve problems or respond to questions with unequivocal answers.
Students work independently to review, summarize, and synthesize existing materials to solve problems and conduct research, without drawing their own conclusions.
Students are engaged in research and problem solving where there are multiple perspectives and a variety of individual and team-based solution strategies, e.g., Socratic dialogue, brainstorming and categorizing, individual and group summarizing, and debriefing.

Collaborative
The school is conceptualized and designed as a learning community where students learn to work collaboratively.

Students complete most assignments individually, and the sharing of ideas and resources is seldom actively encouraged.
Students work together on highly structured tasks. Student roles are defined and controlled by the teacher.
Projects and other instructional tasks are designed to be completed by groups, and students are encouraged to share ideas and resources. Students are encouraged to take responsibility for defining problems, setting goals, learning to evaluate and use information resources, and assessing their progress.

Knowledge Building
Learning is made public so that the learner can get input from diverse perspectives and build on that knowledge.

Students work individually to do the best they can. Sharing information and resources may be considered "cheating."
Students periodically work in groups. Competition across groups is valued and encouraged.
Students are provided many opportunities within the course of their work on an assignment to gather information and feedback from multiple sources including libraries, museums, colleges, other community information sources as well as other students, community members, experts, etc.

Empathetic
Diversity and multiple perspectives are valued and utilized to build on the strengths of all students.

Students have limited opportunities to learn about the experiences and perspectives of other students.
Students have opportunities to learn about the knowledge, experiences, and perspectives of others, but those opportunities are not directly linked to instructional tasks.
Instruction is explicitly designed to solicit, incorporate, and build upon the knowledge, experiences, and perspectives of all students, e.g., through the use of brainstorming and other strategies.

Flexible
Groups are formed and reformed according to the purpose of instruction. Groups are formed based on common needs and interests, usually for short periods of time.

Students remain in the same group for the entire semester or year.
Groups are formed for the entire semester or year, but individual students may be moved to a different group as indicated by performance.
Groups are formed for specific purposes-- e.g., common interest and need for specific skill building--and reformed on a regular basis.

Equitable
Groups are organized so that over time students have opportunities to learn from all other students.

Students primarily work with students of similar abilities.
Students have occasional opportunities to work beyond their ability groups.
Students have frequent opportunities to get to know and work with all other students. All students have challenging roles.

Heterogeneous
Groups include males and females and a mix of cultures, learning styles, abilities, socioeconomic status, and ages in order to capitalize on the range of background knowledge and differing perspectives.

Students are sometimes grouped by ability within and between grades. At other times, whole-group instruction is used.
Students are often grouped by ability but periodically work in heterogeneous groups.
Students primarily work in heterogeneous groups and less often in ability groups.

Facilitator
Teachers create opportunities for students to work collaboratively to solve problems, do authentic tasks, and share knowledge and responsibility.

The teacher is the primary source of information and resources.
The teacher creates highly structured learning opportunities. As students work, he or she circulates among them to insure that they are following directions.
The teacher, in collaboration with others, e.g., library media specialist, creates learning opportunities. As students work, he or she circulates among them to monitor and stimulate their discussion and project work and pose questions or suggest resources as requested or appropriate.

Guide
Teachers help students to construct their own meaning by modeling, mediating, and coaching. They constantly adjust the level of information and support according to students' needs.

The teacher gives explicit directions on how to complete assignments.
The teacher helps students to learn how, when, and why to use different strategies and provides hints, clues, and other feedback to the entire class based on an observation of individual students or in anticipation of likely problems.
The teacher and other instructional partners model their thinking processes, help students to learn how, when, and why to use different strategies, and provide hints, clues, or other feedback on a student-by-student and as-needed basis.

Co-Learner/Co-Investigator
Teachers learn along with students, and students may serve as teachers.

The teacher has expertise in the area of study and experience using the instructional materials.
The teacher provides students opportunities to explore areas outside of the teacher's expertise, but always stays a step ahead of the students.
The teacher extends his or her own knowledge along with the students.

Explorer
Students discover concepts and connections and apply skills by interacting with the physical world, materials, technology, and other people. Often students are encouraged to jump into an open-ended activity in order to stimulate their curiosity, become familiar with the instructional materials, and formulate early understandings of the task.

Students learn the required information through structured activities that provide some opportunities to make their own discoveries and draw their own conclusions.
Students have opportunities to explore topics of interest without making connections to their curriculum.
Students have opportunities to pose questions, initiate projects, and explore issues linked to the curriculum, often with little prior background knowledge. Additionally, they have time to explore "uncharted territory," e.g., the Internet.

Cognitive Apprentice
Students observe, apply, and refine through practice the thinking processes used by practitioners in specific content areas. They receive ongoing feedback on many aspects of a complex problem or skill.

Students receive feedback, usually in the form of grades or scores on their assignments, often only after they are completed.
Teachers observe students as they work on instructional tasks, in order to provide ongoing feedback.
Teachers and other instructional partners regularly model their own thinking processes and strategies, and observe students as they work on instructional tasks in order to observe thinking processes and provide ongoing feedback. They also connect students with appropriate experts who also provide models and feedback.

Teacher
In order to teach others, students must integrate and holistically represent what they have learned.

Students have few opportunities to share what they are learning with others.
Students have opportunities to present what they have learned to others, primarily within their classroom, e.g. oral reports.
Students have frequent opportunities to share and discuss what they have learned with others, e.g., jigsawing, reciprocal teaching, demonstrations, and presentations within and outside their classroom.

Producer
Students generate knowledge and products for themselves and the community which synthesize and integrate knowledge and skills.

Student assignments generally require them to study or respond to existing knowledge, e.g., workbooks, and chapter questions.
Students have opportunities to conduct research using original source materials and then summarize their findings in reports or presentations.
Students are often involved in instructional activities in which they create novel products and ideas to represent their learning, e.g., Energy net.

You may use this box for your name, initials, or other information you would like to have appear on the page with the graph (Optional).

Click the "Graph My Responses" button to create a graph representing your answers.

Please read the NCREL privacy policy to learn how the information you send us will be used.