8. Teachers make an effort to know their students' backgrounds, experiences and interests.
When teachers invest in knowing their students, they not only arm themselves with information that is essential to effective instruction, they communicate to students that they care about student success in school. This, in turn, motivates students to engage the learning opportunities their teachers and the school offer.
Victoria Purcell-Gates describes why teachers should get out into the community and visit homes in order to know their students well:
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Sonia Nieto makes the case that in order for teachers to know their students well, they need to be aware of their own dispositions about race, culture and class:
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Read an authoritative review of research on the nature of student engagement by the National Research Council and the National Academy of Medicine (focus especially on pages 44-54).
