It takes a great deal of hard work and support for people to venture forth and try new things. In my last post I discussed my own experiences with rejection in light of the work done by Jia Jiang and The 100 Days of Rejection. In his vlog, Jia post videos of his encounters with rejection. The entry on day 3 is quite amazing. In this encounter, Jia asks the manager, Jackie, of Krispy Kreme to make a set of doughnuts in the shape of the Olympic rings expecting to be rejected. Instead, she goes to work and fulfills his request. Take a moment to watch the clip.
Jia Jiang, in his interview with Jeff Brown on ReadtoLead podcast states that this encounter made him wonder how many opportunities he had missed because of his fear. How often do we pass on asking, trying, doing, seeing because of our own fear?
Fear Keeps Us from Exploring
In Multipliers Lis Wiseman explores how certain people, whom she calls Multipliers, get more from the people around them, multiplying the effect of their efforts.
They don’t see a world where just a few people deserve to do the thinking; Multipliers see intelligence as continually developing. This observation is consistent with what Dweck calls a “growth mindset,” which is a belief that basic qualities like intelligence and ability can be cultivate through effort. They assume: people are smart and will figure it out. They see their organization as full of talented people who are capable of contributing at much higher levels.
Yet most people end up not using most of their capabilities, stuck in a situation where their talent is not being used to its full capacity, they are unhappy with what they are doing but fear making a change to do something else. In a recent study Gallup Study, 63% of employees were disengaged in their workplace. This has many implications
People spend a substantial part of their lives working, whether in a high-tech startup in Singapore, a financial institution in Australia, or a garment factory in the Dominican Republic. As a result, the quality of their workplace experience is inevitably reflected in the quality of their lives. Gallup’s finding that the vast majority of employees worldwide report an overall negative experience at work — and just one in eight are fully involved in and enthusiastic about their jobs — is important when considering why the global recovery remains sluggish, while social unrest abounds in many countries.
There are many reasons given for this happening in the workplace with a number of different ideas of how to address the situation. Similarly, recent studies of teachers showed that up to 70% of teachers are not engaged at their work while studies of students show a significant portion of students in high school are disengaged. It would appear we have an engagement problem that spans more than just students in schools – it is impacting all aspects of society.
Student Engagement
I often hear that if teachers were to employ particular strategies or methods or tools, they would be able to engage their students more fully in the learning experience. As the list below shows, there is plenty of advice on how to engage students in the classroom!
How to Keep Kids Engaged in Class
Golden Rules for Engaging Students in Learning Activities
Using the Pomodoro Method to Engage your students
5 Proven Ways to Engage Students in Class
How I’ll Engage My Students as Learners: Six Ways to Make Connections
How To Engage Students in Learning
Actively Engage Students Using Hands-on and Minds-on Instruction
Best Teaching Practices to Engage Your Students
Engage Your Students with these Open Educational Resources
R U Engaging Your Students? Strategies and Tools for the Texting Generation
11 Rules for Engaging Students’ Brains
These are just a sampling of the articles about engaging students.
Student engagement is a major topic of discussion on twitter with a number of chats dedicated to this topic. From my PLN @MrH and @MrEhRon are leading #2k15reads, exploring Learn Like a Pirate by Paul Solarz and Pure Genius by Don Wettrick this summer.
Educational Discourse 
Hey Kelly…important questions, but I just don’t think this is rocket science. What engages you? What engages 5 year olds on the playground? What engages any great athlete or writer or scientist? Or blogger? ;0)
Engagement is a mix of interest, passion, agency, and authenticity. Schools generally allow students little or none of that. As Dave Cormier says in this post: “We have not built an education system that encourages people to be engaged. The system is not designed to do it.”
So why, when Gallup reports that over half our high school kids are disengaged, are we surprised?
Will, thank you for your comment, observations and question. I agree it isn’t rocket science nor am I surprised that high school kids report they aren’t engaged or that teachers aren’t engaged. One of my points is that engagement seems to be an issue not only in schools. Although it isn’t rocket science there seems, at least to me, to be part of a conversation outside of education as well as within education circles. Not only is the education system not built to encourage engagement, as Dave Cormier suggests, but from what little I have read, other areas as well seem to be dealing with an issue of people who are not engaged. If, as you state, “Engagement is a mix of interest, passion, agency, and authenticity.” it would seem that there are many people who are experiencing this not just students.