Using low-intensity strategies to support engagement: practical applications in remote learning environments for teachers and families

In this introductory article, we explain the rationale for this special issue: to provide educators and families with effective, practical strategies to increase student engagement and minimize disruption in remote, in person, and hybrid learning environments. We offer this special issue out of respect for the complexities educators and families face in maintaining continuous learning for students during ongoing COVID related school disruptions. We recognize the emotional well-being of today’s educators, family members, and students must be prioritized as we collaborate to mitigate learning loss during this tumultuous time in history. We attempt to meet a need for educators and family members–providing effective, feasible tools–as they strive to engage students using online or remote technologies and navigate the often-turning tides in the COVID era. Therefore, we adapted traditionally in-person use of these strategies (i.e., behavior-specific praise, precorrection, active supervision, and instructional choice) to apply to remote learning. These strategies are often incorporated as foundational elements of tiered systems of support such as Comprehensive, Integrated, Three-tiered (Ci3T) models of prevention and can be used by teachers and families in schools without tiered systems in place.