Disengagement in high school students 11 4

Disengagement in High School Students 1

Disengagement in High School Students

Christopher A. Thomas
Action Research Final Report
ILT 6720 - Action Research

December 5, 2010

Dr. Laura Summers
University of Colorado Denver

Introduction

My opinion prior to this research was that the curriculum in most middle schools and high
schools was failing to achieve the goals required for a 21 st century education because it was an
outdated, linear process. I anticipated that as I spoke to high school students of different
demographics, a picture would emerge of uninspired material presented in a plodding, serial fashion to
large groups of kids in schools where distractions were high.
I thought that I would find indications that pointed to the fact that students needed material to be
presented in a more visual manner, making use of their multiplicity of perceptual senses and allowing
for a quicker and more holistic grasp of complex concepts. I also was looking for indications that the
support detail needed to be designed in realistic cognitive loads that provided a scaffold of causal facts.
But that is not where the interviews led me. As I spoke with individuals and groups of high school
students, it became obvious there were other issues that were perhaps even more pressing than just the
structure of the curriculum, especially from an emotional standpoint.

Focus and Framing

“When I am not engaged, it is because the work is not intellectually engaging.”
― HSSSE 2009 Student Respondent

I remember saying the words, 'you've lost her' to the Assistant Principal, school psychologist
and advisory teacher at my daughter's high school. My comment was met with a blank look and a list
of incidences when she had 'wandered off' to the library or to the art room to draw, or was found simply
sitting in the hallway reading rather than going to class. ' Why doesn't she want to go to class,' I
wondered?

My daughter is an enthusiastic and critical reader, a promising young writer with moments of
brilliance; a thoughtful and interesting conversationalist by adult standards. She's a bubbly teen who'd
rather stay up late painting over old canvases in a drafty garage than 'hanging' with friends; who loves
history and government; has already finished all the electives offered in those areas and who traveled to
other high schools to sign up first-time voters in the last election. She has an innate understanding of
computers, ipods, and screen design; was recognized as an outstanding young Colorado artist by the
US Department of Education at a national art exhibit in Washington, DC; and has a 3.4 GPA. So why
doesn't she want to stay in class? She's bored. She's sullen. She tells me she's learned it all before.
Disengagement - The Problem.
There are millions of kids like my daughter, an alarming number of whom simply lose interest
and drop out of school. The Alliance for Excellent Education (2007) estimates that 7,000 students a
week leave high school. Roughly forty percent of those are thought to fall into my daughter's category
of 'gifted under-achievers'. Ethnicity and socio-economic constraints—the presumably 'disadvantaged'
-- cut another swath through that seven thousand; and finally, there are those who because of a variety
of disabilities, lack of imperatives and lack of anyone caring, simply never find their way through to
the end of high school. That means over a million teenagers each year loose the advantages of a free
high school education -- but that's not all they lose.
The Costs of Dropping Out.
Students who leave high school earn on an average, nearly $10,000 less a year than those who
graduate. Their diminished standard of living constitutes less of a contribution to their communities
through lower wages, lower purchasing abilities, lack of property ownership, and lower productivity.
(Rouse, 2005). A Princeton researcher calculated that each drop-out costs the nation nearly $260,000
over their lifetime and determined that at the current drop-out rate, over twelve million students will
leave school in the next decade, resulting in a loss of $3 trillion to the nation's economy. (Rouse)

The results of disengagement not only costs the society in terms of lost productivity, but
contributes to populations of disengaged people; people who may feel that they will never be
successful; who don't feel a part of their communities; who feel isolated, unable to find a satisfying
place for themselves—who are chronically disillusioned. (Flint, 2002).
One headline that I found particularly chilling was in a report by a British think tank. It read,
“A generation of disengaged children is waiting in the wings...”, indicating that because of these
increases, educational levels are dropping, and social issues involving young people are increasing. It
also implies a deepening of the social chasm between the under educated and disenfranchised and the
educated and privileged. (Demos, 2010)
Disengagement isn't new. Yesterday's 'lack of motivation' is today's underachievement. In the
50's and 60's it was a big topic. In 1983, the Reagan administration's National Commission on
Excellence in Education claimed in their 'Report to the Nation' that the U.S. was at risk because of a
'tide of mediocrity that was eroding the educational foundations of our society.' It cited declining SAT
scores, rising functional illiteracy and an increasing lack of 'higher order' intellectual skills (NCEE,
1983).
The fact is that statistically across the disciplines, our kids' abilities appear to be declining when
compared with students in other developed nations. CBS news reported (2002) that the United States
came in eighteenth out of twenty-four developed nations in a UNICEF evaluation intended to
determine the efficacy of nations' educational systems. Among other things, the numbers made clear
the fact that American students are lagging badly in the crucial areas of math and science, presumably
diminishing their opportunities for competing in a global marketplace.
Statistics; however, don't tell the ultimate human story. You only have to visit a high school to
see the angry, frustrated kids who feel like they wander, faceless, through the hallways; to see the
specter of time poorly spent, and goals and dreams that never really came together. It's the story of

hundreds of thousands of teenagers who fall through the cracks; whose interest was never piqued and
who meandered through four years of instruction with very little to show for it.
What do students mean when they say they're bored?
When you ask them, you get a variety of answers, but they are generally describing their lack of
engagement. The HSSSE Report, a long term study of nearly 400,000 students (Yazzie-Mintz, 2009)
found several consistencies:
▪ 81% of the students interviewed said that the material wasn't interesting.
▪ 40% said that the material was irrelevant.
▪ Concerning the level of work, 33% said it wasn't challenging and 26% said it
was too difficult.
▪ 35% said they had no interaction with their teachers.
The connection with the school community and their teachers played a substantial role in the
reasons students gave for considering dropping out. Even among those who weren't considering
dropping out, many felt that none of the adults in their school cared about them, and roughly half didn't
feel particularly connected to their school.
The study also touches an angry nerve which I found in my interviews—that of lack of control.
In an open expression area, the HSSSE project found many student expressed their disdain for being
forced to respond to yet another survey when they knew that nothing would change; that no one would
listen to what they had to say (Yazzie-Mintz, 2009).
The outcome of the HSSSE Report is foundational to this research. The conclusion of the survey
was that boredom in high school students is caused by:
•

lack of control,

•

lack of choice,

•

lack of challenge,

•

lack of complexity

•

lack of caring.

The value of the HSSSE survey is the strength of its numbers and the source of its information.
Talking directly to high school kids will give us a good starting place and a good sense of how to
proceed, but it is not the full picture (Yazzie-Mintz, 2009). Certainly, the schools who use this
information have a better idea of how to approach their kids. But, as I read the report, two thoughts
occurred to me.
First, the bulleted conclusions are not issues that are easily or substantively changed through
school policy. And secondly, these issues have everything to do with the teenager's sense of self. of
feeling respected, feeling that his thoughts are being heard and make a difference in his learning
opportunities; of feeling that he is being guided by someone who can really help him through new
challenges, who cares about HIM – teaches HIM -- and wants to help him succeed.

Many of these

issues address our sense of humanity; some of them address learning styles and some of them address
the way we perceive information.
What are the Underlying Issues of the problem?
In fact, these issues are all interrelated. Whereas education was once a one-size-fits-all
proposition, we are now beginning to understand that this is not an effective way for humans to learn.
Try as we might to pigeon-hole kids in order to re-engage them, the sheer complexity of human nature
defies any blanket approach. Research is now helping us understand more about teenage cognition and
the stress effect of one of nature's most profound and powerful forces - puberty.
Pubertal maturation. Teenagers can't talk about their own maturation process, so they aren't
able to necessarily tell us why they need choice; why they need to be able to relate to what they're

learning; or why they need someone to care about their progress. For that, they must depend on
ourselves.
In truth, we don't have a clear understanding of teenage maturation and how it affects
motivation and learning, yet it is by far the most dominant, albeit invisible, contextual element. Little of
what we do know about adolescent maturation has trickled into the educational system. For example,
while the age of Menarche for girls now happens at around twelve, having dropped approximately four
years over the last century, the actual time of adolescent development has expanded over the last
century from 2-4 years to an 8-15 year expanse in contemporary societies. (Dahl, Spear, 2004) This is
an extensive change and raises many questions about brain development relative to puberty.
Adolescence is a time of paradox. It is a time when the physiological systems are stronger and
more resilient than any other time in life, yet mortality rates soar because of behavioral and emotional
problems. This is because the neurobehavioral changes associated with puberty outpace the
neurocognition progress. An expanded adolescent period “has stretched out the interval between the
onset of emotional and motivational changes activated by puberty and the completion of cognitive
development...that is, the maturation of self-regulatory capacities and skills that are continuing to
develop long after puberty has occurred.”(Dahl, Spear) More to the point, an expanded adolescence
may cause us to question the timing and sequence of our educational objectives for students aged
twelve to eighteen.
Yet adolescence is also a time of potential. Just as there is a developmentally optimal window
for learning such things as languages, adolescence is the optimal time for developing a new sense of
self as a person, a sense that extends into adulthood. Needless to say, this is also a time when there
needs to be a well-informed, flexible scaffolding of adult mentors to help kids develop adult skills.
Cognitive Dissonance. It is likely that our educational objectives are out of sync with our
students' cognitive development. An accomplished colleague recently commented that it was only a

lack of maturity that kept kids from finishing high school. They just needed to learn how to push
through the 'hard stuff.' As obvious as that statement seems, given a scenario of expanded
adolescence, perhaps our kids are not getting what they need when they need it in order to help them
develop the skills, the confidence and the vision to reach the next plateau. Even on Bloom's Taxonomy,
a student doesn't make judgements about his learning until the highest level, the evaluation stage, when
he might typically be a college-age student.
Wired. In stark contrast to a prolonged adolescent cognitive development, is the push of the
dynamic social system that teens maneuver, the intensity of their communications media and the
pervasive visual and auditory stimulation afforded by on line games and Youtube videos, movies and
social networking. Perhaps, once-upon-a-time that stimulation could be controlled-the TV turned off,
the door shut- so that education could take place. Now, stimulation is impossible to escape, and more
significantly, it IS the form that much of education outside school is taking - especially through the
internet.
Relationship with knowledge. In fact, this new form of education is the harbinger of a radical
shift in learning and a profound alteration in the way we relate to knowledge. Our understanding of
learning has changed from a two-way, teacher-student process, one based on language and logic,
(Veneema, Gardner, 2004) to one that is more student-knowledge oriented; that is, where 'knowledge is
created between the knower and the known' and is processed in a non-linear, non-sequential fashion
characterized by repeated comparisons and updates between the parts and the whole. (Cleveland, 1996)
Further complicating the educational process is the learning styles theory (Gardner, 1996) that
informs us that if we intend to educate all individuals, our one-size-fits-all educational system is
probably not the way to do it. In order to create their own relationships with knowledge, learners need
help to find the kind of information presentation that means something to them. It seems clear that
unless students find ways to understand information in ways that are compatible with their minds, we

run the risk of loosing them to disengagement.
These three elements: student maturation, the society in which they live, and learning styles, form
the foundational context which causes students to tell us they're bored. The specifics; that is, the actual
complaints students relate in these studies are all components of what we've just discussed.
Relevance. The discussion of relevance certainly relates back to the media-saturated world. Kids
today are used to being in-touch 24/7. They are comfortable with developing multiple cyber identities.
They have a great time playing computer games with thousands of people all over the world – people
they have never met, nor will ever meet. They function in a participatory culture online in which they
create and share music, videos, re-mixes, and pictures with people they don't know. (Palfrey, J,
Gasser, U, 2008) They are visually and auditorily very sophisticated. The movies they see reflect the
very latest of computerized technology. Virtually every aspect of their lives requires an active
involvement of all their senses—except school.
Choice, Challenge and Complexity. This also relates to relevance. Given what we know about
learning styles, our language/logic (Veneema, Gardner) presentation of information is too cognitively
constraining and too time-consuming for many students; but it is important to note that it also fails to
adequately present the richness and complexity of human experience. This texture of life that is
conveyed through human perception is often drained out of our learning. The process of human
perception is not just a visually-based sensory attribute, it is the business of the mind. It provides the
dynamic context of thoughts and observations. (Arnheim, 1969) Hence, the unbridled fun of
intellectual discovery depends on the variety of learning options, resources and opportunities that come
with the learner creating his own knowledge relationships.
Human connection. Perhaps the most active developmental aspect for teens is their focus on
relationships. Everything is relational. Their whole sense of self-esteem and confidence is founded in
the support they get from their teachers, coaches, counselors and adult friends. And while parenting is

important, at this stage when they are trying to separate from their parents, it is from other adult
mentors that they learn how to fit into the world. “What is known is that students are eager for
connection with school adults. This story is consistent with many others, in which students are hungry
for support and connection; will go out of their way to sustain that connection, and can overcome great
barriers — temporarily or permanently — with the caring support of an adult” (Yazzie-Mintz, 2009).
Conclusion
There is no shortage of discussion surrounding the problem of high school drop outs. The
conversation is ongoing at the highest levels of government and education, and, as we have seen, it has
been happening in one form or another for at least twenty years. Our situation reminds me of
Einstein's quote regarding our inability to solve problems with same level of consciousness that
created it. In fact, the conversation typically centers around new technologies and a re-configuration of
classroom systems in order to meet revised criteria that is, nonetheless, still founded in the same
traditional academic systems of delivery and assessment, systems that haven't worked very well.
Since the advent of what I call 'Ford-think'; that is, the mass production mentality that has
become the substrate of most of our systems; we have allowed the demands of commerce actuated
through the mechanisms of higher education to determine the focus, structure and methodology of our
high schools. The result has been an educational system, the goal of which is the creation of a national
workforce that is capable of not only competing in but, more importantly, sustaining our country's
dominance in the international marketplace. This is a nationalistic perspective that is outdated and its
precepts are too simple and inadequate for preparing young people for the challenges they face today.
The world has shifted in structure away from an, industrial perspective that depends on the
consistency and conformity of a workforce to one that requires creativity. Now it is, in essence, a nonstructure in that it is knowledge-based, and as such is highly dynamic and individualized, and;
therefore, no more predictable than the trillions of bits of information it processes each nano-second. It

is a paradigm shift that was predicted by Alvin Toffler in his iconic book, Future Shock. (Toffler, 1996)
Orson Wells, in a film presentation about the book describes 'the premature arrival of the future'... 'a
place where technology feeds on knowledge and knowledge expands at a phenomenal rate.' (Wells,
1972)
In stark contrast, our high school educational system is, for the most part, still patterned after
our industrial pasts and no amount of scrambling and/or re-packaging will help it catch up with the
present. Lengthening school days, adding more class titles, stepping up standards, and increasing
expectations really misses the point; and it's a point so crucial that it crushes the spirits of today's high
school students who are the product of the technology evolution-revolution and poised to become
knowledge-making learners.
Ground zero. Granted, as one walks down the halls of any public high school, observing
throngs of plugged-in, tuned-out, texting kids who've stayed up too late playing X-box or Worlds of
Warcraft, jostling and scuffling along in their grunged-out, hip-hopped or recently slept-in outfits, it's
difficult to envision brilliance. It's hard to see the brains processing terabytes of visual, musical,
emotional, physical, atmospheric, environmental and social information each and every nano-second-connecting each byte with a scaffold of already-sorted and stored data from two seconds ago. Yet, each
one of them is uniquely equipped in a way prior generations, in general, haven't been - with the facility
and expectation that information will always be presented in simultaneous multiple-modal forms.
And when the bell rings and they meander into their respective classrooms, unplug from their
music, their conversations, their texting, what do they do? They sit, (hopefully motionless) in lines of
chairs, face the front of a classroom, open a paper notebook, pick up a pencil and prepare to copy
down the linear flow of words pouring out of the mouth of one person. Or... they read the words—also
in linear fashion-- that someone wrote describing how one atom binds to another. A lecture...without
motion, without music, without context, without color, without emotional atmosphere...simply words.

Seven out of ten heads start to nod.

Research Statement
The intended result of this research was, initially, the collection of ideas from the students
themselves, that would help us redesign both curriculum and the classroom experience for a better
outcome. As a media designer with an educational emphasis, I was initially interested in discovering if
a visual, media-rich curriculum would be more engaging for high school students than the traditional
text-book-based one. However, in the cycle of interviews, other issues arose which seemed more
pressing to the students. These were heavily emotional and, in fact, took my inquiry in directions I
hadn't anticipated.
In retrospect, it doesn't surprise me. When we talk to most kids about school and learning and
the importance of graduating, we have to remember that we're talking to young humans who are
completely consumed in the tsunami of complex physical, hormonal and cognitive changes that happen
as one transitions from childhood to young adulthood. The analogy of a larvae turning into a butterfly
is entirely appropriate here in that they are becoming an entirely different being. They may, at times,
have cogent thoughts on their future, but they're really consumed by the intensity of their everyday life
experiences – which may for many, be very difficult and fraught with problems. They are; therefore,
dependent on the information and support they hopefully are getting from parents and teachers. In fact,
as the research shows, they are not getting that support, at least not in the ways that would be most
effective for them.
My research question, thus, evolved from one focused on media design to one focused on the
issues surrounding engagement itself. By the end of my second data gathering, my research question
had morphed into: “what are the components or aspects of your high school experience that cause you

to describe it as 'boring?”
The Literature
Introduction
Although I intended to focus primarily on curriculum, both the literature and the interviews
pointed to more fundamental concerns, especially from an emotional perspective. The literature topics;
therefore, include not only surveys and anecdotal accounts from high schoolers that illuminated
overriding areas of concern, but also, the historical documentation for student non-engagement, newer
theories of student cognitive development, and finally, appropriate learning theories.
The organization of the literature
The literature is organized around three elements: cognitive development in adolescents,
societal acceleration and the exponential expansion of knowledge and our relationship to it. Because
those issues involve a variety of diverse elements, the literature includes work from many differing
areas. Although the reading was extensive, this list is comprised primarily of works that relate directly
to elements and issues of disengagement.
Resources
I have drawn my resources from both the web and my own extensive library. Certainly Google
and other web search engines were helpful as was the Boulder Public Library.
Alliance for Excellent Education, is a think tank that tries to connect educational priorities with
political structures and entities. While I feel that some of what they have to say is focused in the right
direction, I find it over all lacking in substance. However, I have used some of their statistics. As a
source for numbers, they seem to be fairly understandable.
It seems to me that Rudolf Arnheim in his book, Visual Thinking (1969), has more reasonably
presented a primary aspect of learning in his theory of perception. His premise that perception is what
the mind does, gives us a better grasp of how the brain processes different kinds of information; and

more importantly, that it is a dynamic, instantaneous and virtually endless process. All this, combined
with memories and other sensory experiences make learning an unfathomably complex multidimensional occurrence.
John Cleveland, in his article, “The Changing Nature of Learning”, (2010) does an excellent job
in quantifying the skill of learning, the requirements of the current information age and the
transformation that is required of our approach to teaching. I found his thinking to be supportive of
Arnheim's, (1969) Gardner's (1983) and Dahl's (2004) works in describing the complexity of the
learning process. Dahl delves deeply into the cognitive development of teens and presents a
compelling and complex picture of the dynamics of puberty. His understanding that puberty has
expanded in a way that perhaps, maturation has not, could well be the reason so many kids disengage.
That, coupled with Gardner's well known work on learning styles, which he has re-contextualized in
relation to more current media, helps build a solid foundation for why the educational system is failing
so many of our kids.
I found Flint's work (2002)in her study of gifted underachievers, lent a human picture to the
problem of disengagement. The connection between this group and teen disengagement, in general,
shows us the highly individual aspect of the problem.
James Paul Gee, author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy
(2003), tells us we need to broaden our understanding of literacy. Our real world includes an almost
unending array of images, signs and symbols that mean as much if not more to us than the words we
see on the printed page—or screen. In fact, today's students are highly visual and receive most of their
daily information in the form of sound bites. Additionally, the predominance of information comes in
multimodalities of communication that include surroundings, sounds, movement, and other sensory
information.
“The 2009 High School Survey of Student Engagement”(HSSSE Report) provides a compelling

picture of the problem of disengagement. The HSSSE Report is a long range, ongoing study that asks
the students to describe the concept of boredom in the classroom. Over 400,000 students in several
states were interviewed and surveyed. The conclusion of the survey was that boredom in high school
students is associated with: lack of control, lack of choice, lack of challenge, lack of complexity and
lack of caring (Yazzie-Mintz, 2009).
Today's student is different ...he is a 'Digital Native'. Palfrey and Gasser write in their book,
Born Digital (2008) that we have created a technological environment that has given rise to kids who
are completely comfortable with being connected 24/7. The technology of any age is transparent to
those who are born into it. Their brains have already adapted. They are wired to be able to accept
multiple, highly active, sources of stimuli – most often -- simultaneously. Online is the same as offline.
Texting, cellphones, ipods, games in all their various forms are all a part of the digital native's norm.
The stimuli is typically very visual, auditory and kinetic. It's contextual and it is active. Traditional
education, however, is a lock-stepped, single-track, linear progression set out in textbooks.
In her work on disengagement and its financial and social repercussions in the U.K., Sodha
(2010) makes this statement about the millions of young people who are being left behind and the
effect it has on their lives and the social stability of England.
Conclusion
This topic is one that quickly expands into many pedagogical options and alternatives;
nonetheless, the research continues to point to a need for a radical, paradigm shift in the teaching
apparatus. There is certainly reason to believe that we need to adjust not only our curriculum approach
from 'teaching' to 'mentoring', and open our resources to the inventiveness of our learners, but to also
adjust our understanding of their individual learning styles and maturation level.


Research Methodology
My research methodology was exclusively conducted through interviews. I focused on three
main questions. I asked the students why they said they were bored; what was it about the classroom
that didn't work for them. I knew that they weren't engaged, but what did that mean? What was
involved in being engaged for them.
My questions focused on classroom culture and the activities that they have liked and disliked
so far in their experience. I began with an introduction of myself and my project. Using a concept
map, I briefly demonstrated how curriculum is fed by standards from the school district, expectations
from colleges and universities and requirements from the job marketplace. After that, I asked these
three questions.
1. Describe the learning situations you've experienced and discuss what activities or
approaches were either really successful for you – or really unsuccessful.
2. Describe a peak learning experience you have experienced; one where you learned
something so interesting that you lost track of time.
3. What makes you crazy in school?
Data gathering
Data set 1: Observation. Of nine high school freshmen, Black and Hispanic, 13-14 year old
students attending remedial tutoring in Language Arts.
Data set 2: Interview: Continuation of Interview with same group.
Data set 3: Observation. Class experiment, same group.
Data set 4: Interview: with Kaya Fisher, age 17.
Data set 5: Interview: with Advisory Group of 17 students, ages 14-18.
Data set 6: Interview: additional interview with same Advisory Group of 17 students.

Data set 7: Interview: with five students, ages 16-18.
Coding
In an effort to track the separate issues involved in kids' boredom, I initially coded not only for
the HSSSE issues, but also a couple of others that I noticed in my interviews. They include:
1. Material that is interesting
2. Lack of Control
3. Relevance of material
4. Fun
5. Time
6. Interaction with instructor
7. Interaction with community and life
After reviewing my interview notes and analyzing the contextual aspect of the seven codes, I
realized that these issues distilled down to three key points: lack of control, relevance of material and a
caring learning environment.

Research
“I've spent all this time and I still can't DO anything!” -Kaya Fisher

Introduction
Certainly adolescence is one of the most challenging periods of human life. Spending many
hours with teens, discussing their lives, their classes, their attitudes and fears, their plans and their
longterm dreams, one is alternatingly amazed and uplifted by their intelligence, brilliance and hope and
then saddened by fears, lack of confidence and lack of direction. If nothing else, one must admire the

resilience most of them exhibit-often at the expense of hope- in moving through a plodding system that
no longer serves them.
Data Set 1 – Nine Freshman High school Students.
Methodology: Observation
I recently taught a high school English preparatory class for eighth grade, lower income
students who were about to attend Boulder High School. The curriculum included teaching two novels,
“Of Mice and Men” and “Animal Farm;” how to write a book report, and of course, how to use basic
grammar. There were many cultural constraints in this class.
Observations
My two primary observations were:
1. Students aggressively shut down.
2. The students lacked confidence in their thoughts and only started to open up with highly
focused personal attention.
3. They were unable to grasp the essence of the two novels without seeing the full story in video.

Data Set 2: – Nine Freshman High school Students.
Methodology: Interview
Several weeks later as I talked about what would be expected of them in just a few weeks when
they began high school, I sensed tensions rising. I told them to put their books away and I asked them to
tell me how they felt about going to high school. Their attitudes changed dramatically. There was an
awkward silence. Suddenly, one of the boys who was obviously both academically strong and a 'jock',
said, “I'm terrified! I don't know how I'm going to get it all done!”


Observations
1. There was a pervasive sense of hopelessness – they knew they couldn't succeed.
2. These kids seemed to want to talk about themselves all the time. It was as if no one had
ever listened to them; no one had ever taken the time to help them.
3. The kids tried to explain how fearful they were about the educational system and
whether they'd be unable to keep up.
4.
Data Set 3 – the same nine students
Methodology – class experiment
Gave assessment quiz to test their abilities with grammar. The results were mixed. The next day
we talked about it again only this time I gave them colored paper and pencils and taught them how to
diagram a sentence. They enjoyed drawing out the lines and adding the words, and even though most
of their pages were unduly decorated, the exercise seemed to increase their understanding of how
words worked together. When I re-tested, everyone did much better.
Observations
My conclusion from this experiment was simply that when I added a more visual element to the
subject, the students understood the relationships better. To say, “adjectives modify or describe nouns,”
is too abstract. It is a piece of information that has no physical context; nor do they understand it as an
imperative for language. When they see the physical connections, it makes sense.

Data Set 4 – Interview with Kaya Fisher
Methodology – Interview
I have known Kaya for many years, since she was at Southern Hills Middle School—and now

she has just recently graduated from New Vista High School. Kaya is focused on becoming a dentist.
Observations
1. The issue of boredom was related to that general lack of passion, which was reflected in the
way the material was presented. She felt like her time was being wasted. She felt an urgency
about the time she spent in school but didn't feel that the time was being well spent.
2. She could learn faster on her own. Kaya took a couple of online classes and remarked that she
was able to move through the information more quickly. The tests were immediate and if she
didn't pass, she could visit the lesson over and over until she got the grade she wanted.
3. Visual explanations made learning easier and if she didn't understand, she could go back
through the lesson and figure it out.
4. The online classes gave her an experience she could control. It also – importantly –
precluded having to deal with a teacher's pacing, a teacher's attitude, the annoyance of students
who were disruptive and a whole social scene. Going to class for her was always a grab bag of
dynamics that were largely controlled by everyone else and not by her.
5. Relevance was a big issue for her. She wanted to know why they weren't taught skills that were
directly related to her immediate life or why no one spent time discussing the context of the
subjects.
6. Lack of connection with teachers. No one seemed to make the effort to connect with her.
Because she knows she's bright and capable of understanding, she was offended that no one
thought enough of her to discuss her ideas of what she wanted to study. She wanted a more
personalized program.
7. Disempowerment. Kaya had a sense of frustrated isolation, a sense of dis-empowerment at
being marched through a system that didn't seem to relate to anything she knew about life,
didn't bother to discuss the reasons with her and, in fact, didn't seem to care at all what her

interests or thoughts were.
8. She couldn't see that the 'system' could be changed because it would mean that the whole
college perspective would have to change and she didn't see that happening.
9. She chose dentistry because she would be the first person in her family to go to college and
because her family had always struggled, she wanted a job where she could make a lot of
money.

“If I were learning out in the world instead of in here, I would have learned more by now!”
- New Vista Student

Data Set 5 and 6 – 17 high school students
Methodology - Interviews
The group consisted of seventeen high school students, ages 16-17. The school they attend an
alternative public high school that focuses on students who are artists, musicians, writers and other
creative types. The school population is small, only about 300 students in four grades, and has a
community approach to its kids. The atmosphere is very informal; kids call their teachers by first
names. Class presentation is pretty traditional.
Observations
1. Control . Having some control over their learning environment is a big issue for these kids.
They're very aware of the requirements of the high school system and resent not having a voice.
Another aspect of control is the freedom to explore on their own more.
2. Seeing students as partners in their education. This sense of indignation spilled over into the
idea that no one asked for their opinions or gave them guidance. They fully understand that
there are classes that they need for college, but they have the feeling that they are being

bulldozed; that is, managed by lies so they can be pushed through the system.
3. Relevance. The students are just waiting for someone to show them the sense of what it is
they're being asked to study. Not that they mind the work; it's just that they are missing the
context for much of what they learn.
4. Time. These kids felt that they were rapidly running out of time. They felt that they were
under a lot of pressure to succeed and that the classroom was a plodding place where
information moves at a snail's pace. They also felt that the repetition of material each year was
a waste of their time.
5. Experiential. This topic was strongly linked with 'fun.' The more active the class was, the
more interesting they found it and the more they thought they learned.

Data Set 7 – 5 girls
Methodology - Interviews
I met informally at my house with five girls, ages 17-19, who were in or just recently graduated
from New Vista. Since all the girls already knew me, rather than using my main questions, I just let the
conversation unfold.
Observations
1. Fear. The most noticeable aspect of this conversation was fear; fear of failure, fear of
having too much to do; fear of not figuring everything out.
2. Relevance. There was a real sense of resentment that was felt on several levels. They
were angry in that they were required to take classes that didn't relate to what they were
interested in, and they were also angry because they felt that they were constrained from
pursuing their interests and moving on to higher levels of material, either because it
wasn't offered or because their time was taken up with classes they were told they had to

take. There is a form of irrelevance in the way they were taught—information without
context. They felt that they were required to memorize material without having an
understanding of how and why it was important.
3. Lack of control. The disempowerment that the students felt in respect to the lack of
partnership in their education was largely interpreted as a lack of respect. Students
certainly acknowledged that they understood the fact that the system was dictated by
forces beyond anyone's control, but they didn't understand why their thoughts and
opinions were overlooked and why they didn't have advocates for them amongst the
teachers.
4. Connection with teachers. For the most part, the girls had no significant connections
with teachers and staff. There were a couple of teachers who were mentioned as being
helpful, but that exposure was limited to the time the students spent in their classes. No
one had a mentor who helped move them through material or who they felt 'cared.'

Conclusions
The interviews were, at times, overwhelming. They turned into a sort of therapy session for
many of the kids and so the material I have to work with is very emotional, anecdotal and heavily
filtered through teenage attitudes. It was clear that many of these issues had been bottled up. Although
I had only three main questions, they seemed to hit nerves and open floodgates. In many cases I was
surprised by the fears that some of the kids expressed such as the fear of simply growing up; of not
having what it takes to be a successful adult. I was impressed with their level of self-expression and
their persistent calls for respectful participation in a process they perceive as inflexible. It was this
intensity that helped me understand the greater importance of adjusting my vision from the process of
simple media design to the much more expansive imperative of creating an educational environment

that supports, nurtures and mentors students as they partner with teachers and other students in
developing their learning opportunities.
The results of both my literature inquiry and my research have yielded the following
conclusions. These are the elements that students have told us are important to their learning. The
topics are not new, but often, the kids assign deeper, more personal significance than we know.
Lack of Control. This has been misconstrued to mean that kids just want to choose the classes
that interest them. As a result, schools are now offering an often impressive array of topical classes in
any given discipline. But that's not exactly what kids mean. They understand that there are
requirements for college entrance. They are looking for a greater partnership in the way they learn that
material. The biggest complaint I heard was that students weren't allowed to pursue ideas and topics
that piqued their interest as they moved through the curriculum. There wasn't time. The teacher had to
stay on course. Students couldn't move ahead to any great degree nor did they have the opportunity to
have guidance in delving into areas that really interested them.
Secondarily, their days are so controlled that they can't use school technology to expand their
knowledge on their own. The school technological rules assume that this sort of access will be abused,
a situation that students find insulting. Students understand that they have an innate ability to learn
even in situations where there are no adults because they do it in life all the time. It's the interaction
with the school system that makes them start to mistrust themselves.
Almost all of children are competent learners on their own, in fact, there is evidence that
learning is a self-organizing system. In a landmark study by Sugata Mitra, (Mitra, 2008) it was shown
that even uneducated kids living in an Indian slum could teach themselves how to use a computer and
the internet when given access to computers that were mounted in walls in their neighborhoods. They
stood there by the droves as older kids taught younger kids how to get online and search for things that
interested them.

What American students want when they speak of control is a student-centered learning
environment where they are mentored by or partnered with instructors who consider their individual
learning styles and interests and act as enablers in helping them move through a variety of learning
experiences. They don't want to be held back from advancing because of limitations of class size or
curriculum limitations and they don't want to be forced to memorize a linear presentation of data. They
want to be able to explore and discover the information in a context that makes sense to them.
Relevance. Like Kaya, most students feel like they're going to school in a vacuum. They don't
find the material relevant because there isn't a sufficient context to help them understand the
importance of how this or that piece connects to something they do know about. Relevance is a
hopeful byproduct of a student-centered learning environment whereby a mentor enables a student to
greater understanding of a topic through experiential learning and by scaffolding new information on
old. This may take place at a computer, on location or a combination of both.
The Gates Foundation describes a learning situation wherein math students worked out the
design and manufacturing details for a backpack and presented it to an actual manufacturer. The
project included calculations of fabric and other supplies for a specific number of backpacks, the
arrangement of the cuts, the number of employees it would take to sew them, the salaries and benefits,
and the marketing of the product. (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) Working in teams, consulting
with the real-life clients, and learning about manufacturing in an actual manufacturing operation, gave
them an understanding that went way beyond math.
Relevance is also an attitude. It incorporates the concept of experiential learning with a more
respectful relationship and partnering with instructors as together, they expand the learning
environment. The byproducts are not only the understanding of the material, they are critical thinking,
self-esteem, satisfaction and interpersonal skills. If these basic criteria are in place, there is a greater
chance that more students will be more engaged; which translates into school being more fun, learning

- more satisfying and time spent - more worthwhile.
The final key concept is caring. The HSSSE (Yazzie-Mintz, 2009) research showed this to be of
monumental importance to high school students. A caring learning environment is one that tells a
student in no uncertain terms that it is all about him; that it is there to work with him, support him
through the challenges and nurture his creativity and inventiveness. Students want the individualized
attention and interpret the lack thereof as a message that they're not deserving. They will try harder for
someone whom they know cares for them. In the absence of that person, they often don't try at all.
Spending time talking with these teenagers gave me the occasion to enjoy their wonderful
intellects, remarkable skills of perception and discernment, their refreshing intolerance for anything or
anyone disingenuous and their brilliant, creative energy. The awareness that we have the opportunity
and mandate to change our educational system into something that is enabling, helping as many
students as possible launch into their dreams is exciting, albeit a task so challenging it's hard to know
where to begin.
Though it is beyond the scope of this research, I frequently found references to a variation on
the Piaget theory of Constructivism; that is, a curriculum and a class structure that was centered around
mentoring and guiding students as they essentially began building their own knowledge-base. A
learning model founded in structured curriculum and experiential projects and expanding into largely
self-determined investigation, seems that it would allow growth, experience, choice, complexity and
control for students with the focused support of teachers. It is my opinion that this, accompanied by a
re-evaluation of objectives that more realistically reflect cognitive and maturation levels with less of an
emphasis on college entrance requirements would start to slow the disengagement numbers. It might
even be a good idea to extend high school through age nineteen and begin to incorporate more
vocational opportunitites.
Sir Ken Robinson (2010) speaks of a change in our preconceptions of education. He speaks of

abandoning (not changing or improving) the industrialized model of mass education for one that is
more personalized, more organic; resulting in what human communities need – diverse talent – lots of
people doing lots of different things. Rather than a system of conformity, he advocates an educational
system that creates the conditions under which learning of all types can flourish to the greater
satisfaction of the learner and to the greater benefit of their communities. It's not a predictable model,
but it's an engaging one; one that we see demonstrated over and over again on websites like the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation (2010) and Edutopia. (Edutopia: the George Lucas Educational Foundation.
(2010)
Still, it's a daunting task to try to educate someone to be functional in a world that doesn't exist
yet...about which we have no idea... to hold jobs that haven't been created yet. But that is the thing
that makes us distinctly human—our imagination... our ability to create; “the capacity to bring into
mind things that aren't present ...to think about things that have never been but could be.” (Robinson,
2010) It's difficult not to wax poetic at this point because the possibilities are so profound for
educational and societal change, but the real motivation must be the understanding that the stakes are
so very high for the millions of kids who sit, slouched in our classrooms – just like many of us didwithout enthusiasm, without a sense of understanding their own potential, without the critical thinking
skills and the unbridled creativity to discover new ideas. It has to start with them.


References
Alliance for Excellent Education, (2010). Retreived from: http://www.all4ed.org/.

Arnheim, R. (1969). Visual Thinking, Berkley and Los Angeles, CA, University of California Press.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, (2010). Next generation learning, an innovative learning scenario,
Retrieved from:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/postsecondaryeducation/Documents/nextgenlearning.pdf.

Cleveland, J. (1996). The changing nature of learning. On Purpose Associates.

Retrieved from:

http://www.nupolis.com/public/docs/Changing_Nature_of_Learning.pdf.

Commission on Excellence in Education, (1983). A nation at risk: the imperative for educational
reform, a report to the nation and the Secretary of Education. Retrieved from:
http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html.

Dahl, R.E., Spear, L.P., (2004). Adolescent brain development: a framework for understanding unique
vulnerabilities and opportunities. eds: Ann New York Acad Sci 1021:1-22.

Flint, L. (2002). Self interventions of gifted underachievers: stories of success. University of

Georgia. Retrieved from: m4hand04.myweb.uga.edu/portfolio/projects/.

Gardner, H., (1983). Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.

Gee, J.P., (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York, NY.,
Palgrave McMillan,

Palfrey, J., Gasser, U., (2008). Born Digital – Understanding the first generation of digital natives,
New York, NY. Perseus Books Group.

Mitra, S. (2004). Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves: The hole-in-the-wall experiment.
Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html

Robinson, K., (2010). Bring on the learning revolution! Retrieved from:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html.

Rouse, C., (2005). The Labor Market Consequences of an Inadequate Education,
Retrieved from: http://www.literacycooperative.org/documents/
TheLaborMarketConsequencesofanInadequ ate Ed.pdf.

Sodha, S., Maro, J., (2010). Ex curricula, Retrieved from:
http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/excurricula.

Toffler, A., (1970). Future Shock, New York, NY., Random House.


Veneema, S., Gardner, H., (1996) Multimedia and multiple intelligences, The American
Prospect, November-December, Number 29. Retrieved from:
http://www.howardgardner.com/docs.

Welles, O., (1972). Future Shock, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ghzomm15yE

Yazzie-Mintz, E., (2009) Charting the Path from Engagement to Achievement:
A Report on the 2009 High School Survey of Student Engagement.
Retrieved from: http://ceep.indiana.edu/hssse/index.htm .

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