The Effects of the Location of Instruction on Student Engagement.

Abstract

This study reviewed the effects of altering the location of instruction on student engagement. The three children in this study were selected based on different levels of achievement in their regular English class. I collected qualitative and quantitative data by recording field note observations which included documentation of student participation and other behaviors, as well as surveys which prompted participants to reflect on the experience of altering the location of instruction and their own engagement levels. Other data collected included student work samples from each of the different locations during the data collection. Findings were derived from the research. The findings were as follows: (1) all participants showed an improvement in the quality of their completed work when the location was altered from the traditional classroom setting to the library or computer lab; (2) all participants ranked their engagement highest when the location of instruction was the computer lab; (3) each student received their highest score on the writing assignment that was completed in the computer lab. Results of this study suggest that altering the location of instruction does have a direct impact on student engagement levels. Further, the results of this study suggest that different locations have different effects on the level of student engagement.