By Berfin Sidar Asit,Contributor,Derek Newton

Copyright forbes

BITLIS, TURKIYE – SEPTEMBER 8: Students are seen as 2025-2026 academic year starts in Bitlis, Turkiye on September 8, 2025. (Photo by Berfin Sidar Asit/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Anadolu via Getty Images

A new report and survey from Discovery Education ought to be a reminder that there is a secret sauce for scholastic success – student engagement.

Engagement is the single most important learning light switch. Without engagement switched on, no novel curriculum, no education technology, no proven pedagogy will get very far. Said another way, engagement is not sufficient for learning. But it’s pretty nearly required.

In the new report, Discovery surveyed K-12 students, teachers, school and system administrators and family caregivers about engagement. The results are important and interesting and worth a review.

Generally, it finds that student engagement peaks in elementary school, declines significantly in secondary school, and then ticks slightly upward again in high school.

In what may be a lesson for curriculum and pedagogy in the crucial middle school years, the report suggests that the high school engagement bump may be related to, “increased autonomy, more relevant coursework, or stronger identity development. These findings align with some developmental frameworks, such as self-determination theory that shows when adolescent learners experience autonomy, competence, and relevance, their intrinsic motivation is more likely to increase, especially if learning feels meaningful or future focused.”

In addition to underscoring the pivotal nature of engagement, the Discovery report also surfaces what may be disconnects between how teachers literally observe and recognize student engagement and how students report that they see it.

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Teachers, for example, see engagement as class participation – activities such as asking questions or working on class projects. But the survey implies that these proxies for student engagement may be incomplete, at least according to students.

“Nearly 80% of teachers report that students often zone out, yet fewer than half of students say the same. This mismatch suggests that teachers may mistake quiet or internalized forms of engagement, like reflecting, imagining, or self-directing, as disengagement or a lack of motivation because these behaviors are harder to notice in the moment,” the report says.

It continues, “This gap highlights a key tension in how engagement is recognized and expressed. Asking questions requires not just curiosity, but also social confidence and a classroom environment where students feel comfortable speaking up. Many students want to contribute but feel too shy or nervous, especially in middle school. This highlights that lack of verbal participation doesn’t equal lack of engagement.”

And that, “there is a noticeable 22-point gap between how much students value class participation and how often they actually engage in it, suggesting that while students understand its importance, social factors like peer judgment, fear of being wrong, or discomfort speaking up may hold them back.”

The survey also digs into a primary ingredient of school engagement, motivation. But here too, the report shows a disjointed view.

For example, the report says, “When asked about barriers, over one-third of education leaders and half of teachers cite low motivation as the primary challenge to engagement, yet only 16% of students agree.”

Students also say that internal motivations “such as personal satisfaction and interest in subject matter [are] highly motivating.” And that, “86% of students believe that personal satisfaction is very motivating for schoolwork.”

Using these data, the report says that teachers and schools can do more to tap into these internal motivations and deliver higher engagement by making lessons and assignments more challenging and personally interesting. “Together, these findings suggest that what educators may interpret as disinterest often reflects a lack of relevance, personal connection, or appropriate challenge in the learning experience,” the report says.

“These findings align with recent Gallup research which consistently shows that students report higher levels of intrinsic motivation and a desire for meaningful, challenging work, even as educators continue to view low motivation as a top concern. Similarly, a classroom study found that students motivated by genuine interest or personal value in the work most often showed authentic, lasting engagement, while those driven mainly by external rewards or pressure tended toward surface-level or withdrawn participation,” the report also found.

The Discovery report also warns about the long-term motivation damage caused by compliance-based school activities such as homework.

The report says, “Engagement researchers have defined this dynamic of simultaneous workload and boredom as passenger mode. Students show up, follow instructions, and complete homework, but they do so passively, without taking initiative or feeling personally or cognitively connected to their learning. Over time, this leaves students feeling both overwhelmed and bored, unsure of the purpose behind what they’re asked to do and increasingly checked out.”

But what, in addition to more motivating and interesting classroom activities, can boost student engagement?

According to the report, teachers say time – they need more time to prepare for classes and invest in engaging students directly in the classroom.

Also, literally everyone in the survey says more money is needed to upgrade and improve the engagement potential of classroom activities. “Stakeholders widely agree on a major barrier: limited classroom resources,” the report finds. “While 81% of students and 79% of parents recognize this challenge, educators feel it even more acutely. Eighty-four percent of teachers and 80% of principals report limited resources as a barrier, with superintendents citing it most strongly at 95%. This consistent pattern underscores that resource constraints continue to limit schools’ ability to support deeper student engagement.”

If you follow education, little of that is surprising. Schools need more money. Teachers need more time. And everyone needs to find the best ways to pull more motivation and engagement from students.

But that should not in any way minimize the importance of the findings. Especially now, as education distractions are everywhere, it’s crucial to remember what really works in classrooms – or what does not work. And almost nothing we try to do in a classroom works when students are not motivated and engaged.

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