Student Engagement in the Classroom: The Impact of Classroom, Teacher, and Student Factors.
Smaller groups plus student-led activities spark more joint engagement in elementary and middle-school students with autism, especially when the child can speak in phrases or sentences.
01Research in Context
What this study did
R et al. watched 25 elementary and middle-school students with autism during class.
They counted joint engagement — times the child and another person focused on the same thing.
Team recorded group size, who led the activity, autism severity, and each child’s language level.
What they found
Kids showed more joint engagement in smaller groups than in large ones.
Student-directed lessons beat teacher-led lessons for getting kids involved.
Children with milder autism traits and stronger expressive language engaged the most.
How this fits with other research
Laposa et al. (2017) later tested peer-network interventions in high school and also saw more social contacts, extending the idea to older students.
Richman et al. (2001) and Ajibola et al. (1995) showed that letting students deliver their own tokens or self-reinforce boosts work output; R’s data say the same student-directed style lifts joint engagement in autism.
May (2019) found choice only helps when paired with differential attention — a reminder that student-directed does not mean teacher exits; it means teacher guides with warm, specific praise.
Why it matters
Shrink group size and share control with the student. These two free moves raise joint engagement without new materials or drugs. Use language screening to spot who may need extra supports; kids with limited expressive speech gain less from the small-group boost. Pair the setup with immediate labeled praise and you hit the sweet spot May (2019) mapped.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Researchers have highlighted engagement as a critical component of effective interventions for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet there is limited research related to engagement in school-age children with ASD. This descriptive study was designed to examine joint engagement and its relationship with classroom factors and student characteristics. The sample included 25 elementary and middle school students with ASD. Mixed level modeling was used to examine relationships between joint engagement and classroom factors and student characteristics. Joint engagement was significantly related to group size, use of student-directed practices, autism severity, and expressive communication skills. These findings have important implications for educational policies and practices and future research related to engagement and effective interventions for students with ASD.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2015 · doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2406-9