The impact of silence pedagogy on vulnerable students’ engagement in physical education: a mini-review

In recent years, improving vulnerable students’ engagement in the classroom has received increasing attention from researchers. Existing literature indicates that vulnerable students with low levels of classroom engagement often show signs of confused thinking, distracted attention, and insufficient learning investment. This phenomenon has been widely discussed among researchers in the field of education. To improve classroom engagement among vulnerable students, researchers have proposed various interventions. One of these interventions is the implementation of silence pedagogy in the classroom. However, existing research on silence pedagogy has mainly focused on mathematics and foreign language classrooms, whereas research in physical education (PE) remains limited. This raises questions about what silence pedagogy is and how it affects vulnerable students’ engagement in PE classes. Drawing on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) search strategy, we conducted a systematic search of databases such as the Web of Science and Scopus and included 21 articles. We then reviewed these articles and examined the definition of silence pedagogy and its impact on students’ engagement. The analysis revealed that silence pedagogy could enhance vulnerable students’ cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement. This study extends the existing knowledge base on silence pedagogy by reviewing its effects on classroom engagement among vulnerable students in PE contexts.