combined motivation and active learning promote basic student engagement and improve learning outcomes for all students, some teachers are pushing for even more: They want students to be truly transformed by their educational experiences. Although any learning, by definition, results in some level of change, transformative learning is deep and thorough change. Cranton (2006) defines transformative learning as “a process by which previously uncritically assimilated assumptions, beliefs, values, and perspectives are questioned and thereby become more open, permeable, and better justified” (p. vi). It requires learners “to examine problematic frames of reference to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, reflective, and able to change” and can be “provoked by a single event … or it can take place gradually and cumulatively over time” (p. 36).
Transformative learning occurs when students are challenged intensely, creating the kind of growth described by Perry's (1998) upper levels of intellectual and ethical development. In Perry's observations, most freshmen enter college as dualists, believing that there are clear, objective, right/wrong answers. One of the goals of a college education is to help students move beyond dualistic thinking to more complex stages as they learn to deal with uncertainty and relativism. As experiences challenge their thinking, students begin to see that truth is contextual and relative, and, since there is not a single correct answer, may think something along the lines of “everyone has a right to their own opinion.” Eventually they recognize that there may be multiple answers to a question, but not all answers are equal, and specific criteria such as empirical evidence and logical consistency can help them evaluate the usefulness and validity of knowledge claims.
In Perry's (1998) fourth and final stage, students come to recognize that they must make individual choices that require both objective analysis and personal values. As students' thinking matures to this level of sophistication, it is truly transformative. Interestingly, Bowen (2005) observes that students often resist teachers' attempts to promote transformative learning precisely because it “necessarily threatens the student's current identity and worldview,” and he cites a study at an elite liberal arts college revealing that the majority of students did not want to participate in a discussion until they felt well prepared to defend their already firmly held views (Trosset, 1998, in Bowen, 2005). Some teachers consider transformative learning to be an element of engaged learning, but it may not be so much a required element as much as the result of either sustained engagement or engagement that has achieved a higher level of personal intensity.
Can Teachers Actually Promote Student Engagement?
Engagement is something that the students do, and as such, it's easy to say that they either come willing and ready to invest in the work or they don't. But in truth, teachers can do much to promote positive attitudes toward learning and the level of effort and depth of processing achieved. Indeed, for teachers, this is part and parcel of the job. Instructors who seek to increase opportunities for student engagement help everyone more successfully achieve the course's learning objectives. Decades of research in higher education document the relationship between student engagement and learning outcomes, and these results have been collated and synthesized in meta-studies focused on the key factors of engagement.
Meta-Research on Motivation Interventions
Several researchers have affirmed the relationship between motivation and learning. In addition, they have shown that an instructor's intentional efforts toward promoting motivation can be effective. In a 2016 meta-analysis, for example, the authors reviewed research on intervention studies that were grounded in motivation theory, such as achievement emotions, achievement goals, attribution, expectancy-value, goal setting, implicit theories of intelligence (mindsets), interest, need for achievement, possible selves, self-affirmation, self-confrontation, self-determination, self-efficacy, social belongingness, and transformative experience. They examined studies from all educational levels, including 57 studies at the college/university/postsecondary level. They found that interventions were generally effective at improving motivation and increasing learning outcomes (Lazowski & Hulleman, 2016). Their research provides faculty with documentation that efforts toward enhancing motivation can improve engagement and learning outcomes.
Meta-Research on Active Learning Strategies
We have noted that active learning is something akin to intellectual effort or deep processing, and that active learning techniques are the particular tasks teachers use to promote active learning among students. Hundreds of studies have documented the benefits of active learning techniques or strategies on student learning outcomes, and several authors have written excellent research reviews of this work (see, e.g., Hake, 1998; Michael, 2006; Prince, 2004). Moreover, a widely publicized article by Freeman et al. (2014) compared student outcomes in lectures alone versus lectures combined with active learning strategies in undergraduate STEM courses through a meta-analysis of 225 studies. The researchers found that when instructors used active learning strategies in addition to their lectures, student exam scores increased significantly and student failure rates decreased significantly when compared to instructors who used lecture methods alone. This review also suggests that teachers can play a meaningful role in promoting student engagement and learning outcomes by incorporating active learning techniques.
Conclusion
In this chapter, we have defined engagement as a mental state representing the intersection of motivation (the feeling aspect of engagement) and active learning (the thinking aspect of engagement). We have suggested that teachers can do much to promote motivation and active learning, and that when they do so, they can improve student engagement and ultimately student learning outcomes.
Understanding basic principles drawn from research and theory on motivation and active learning can offer insights into how to promote student engagement. Let us therefore explore the first element in our model of student engagement, student motivation, in greater depth.
Chapter 2 Engagement and Motivation
WE HAVE POSITED that student engagement is a product of motivation and active learning; in this section, our focus is on the motivation factor of the model. What is motivation and how does motivation work in the college classroom as an essential factor of student engagement? While these are important questions that many college teachers grapple with, unfortunately there's not an easy answer. There are, however, several different theories about what motivates individuals and how motivation happens. Understanding these theories broadly can help to inform our understanding of how to motivate students and ultimately engage them in their learning. We now turn our attention to unpacking the concept of motivation.
What Is Motivation?
In Chapter 1, we described motivation as a theoretical construct to explain the reason(s) we engage in a particular behavior. We suggested that motivation is the feeling of interest or enthusiasm that makes someone want to do something. At a fundamental level, then, motivation is the inclination to act in a way that satisfies certain conditions, such as wishes, desires, or goals. Motivation means attempting to optimize well-being, maximize pleasure, and minimize pain. While motivations can be biologically based factors that are often called drives, including constructs like hunger and thirst that are rooted in biological purposes, they can also be driven by social and psychological mechanisms.
Motivation that is driven by social and psychological factors comes in two types: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation arises from internal factors such as personal satisfaction, interest, or enjoyment. For students, if they are in college because they want to learn and want to become more educated, they are intrinsically motivated. Intrinsically motivated students will
