Abstract
Fostering students’ classroom engagement is a research hotspot in classroom teaching management. Enhancing classroom engagement requires consideration of the interactive effects of physical and interpersonal environments. Considering the characteristics of physical space, the teacher gives feedback on student engagement in terms of different seating positions. Further, near-seated peer group engagement has an impact, though previous research has found this to be inconsistent. The teacher and near-seated peer groups have different paths of influence on classroom engagement, and there is interplay between them. However, based on realistic classroom scenarios, it is difficult for traditional research methods to reveal how spatially heterogeneous and non-linear micro-interactions among teachers, students, and near-seated peer groups evolve into dynamic changes in macro-classroom engagement. Hence, this study utilized agent-based simulation to explore the non-linear dynamic mechanism underlying how teacher-student proximity, teacher feedback, and near-seated peer groups affect classroom engagement, thereby shedding light on the evolutionary features of classroom engagement. According to the results, the teacher’s positive feedback promoted an S-shaped increase in classroom engagement, and the closer a student sat to the teacher, the greater the increase was. The level and homogeneity of near-seated peer group engagement were predictors of changes in classroom engagement. Moreover, the proximity of students to the teacher, teacher feedback, and near-seated peer groups had a joint effect on student engagement. The compensation effect of the teacher’s positive feedback on the impact of low-engagement, near-seated peer groups was weaker than that of highly engaged, near-seated peer groups on the effects of the teacher’s negative feedback. This suggests that the model of teacher-student proximity and teacher feedback effects differed from that of near-seated peer group influence, and the two interacted and showed asymmetry.
Highlights
The classroom is an important place for teachers to carry out teaching activities and for students to learn
We propose that students who both receive the teacher’s positive feedback (TPF) and have an engaged near-seated peer group have the highest levels of classroom engagement; the lowest levels of classroom engagement result from the teacher’s negative feedback (TNF) and nearseated peer group disengagement, showing cumulative effects
The study scrutinized the research hypothesis through sensitivity analysis and obtained the following conclusions: (1) As the teacher’s positive feedback increased, classroom engagement increased with an Sshaped curve, and the closer the distance to the teacher, the greater the increase
Summary
The classroom is an important place for teachers to carry out teaching activities and for students to learn. Classroom engagement refers to the extent that students focus on learning tasks and activities in class. The degree of students’ classroom engagement directly reflects their classroom learning motivation and affects their academic performance and social development. How to inspire and promote students’ engagement in classroom teaching has become a key issue in classroom teaching management research in recent years [1,2,3,4,5]. The factors that impact students’ classroom engagement are very complex. Classroom physical environmental factors such as light, acoustics, color, temperature, and seating arrangement [6] influence students’ classroom engagement. Teacher-student interactions (teacherstudent, student-student) [7], teacher feedback given to students [8, 9], and peer groups [10,11,12] can affect students’ classroom engagement. Different scholars have conducted useful studies on these intricate, interactive effects from various angles
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