Redefining our Approach to Engagement

Walter McKenzie
2 days ago
6 min read

Engagement is not entertainment. It is not noise, novelty, or busyness. And it is certainly not compliance disguised as learning.

At its core, engagement is about intellectual and emotional investment. It is the kind of involvement that stretches thinking, provokes curiosity, and leads to genuine growth. When we confuse engagement with entertainment, we risk designing learning experiences that look impressive on the surface but deliver little beneath it.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines engagement as “the fact of being involved with something, often in relation to complex or demanding problems.” Embedded within this definition is an important truth. Engagement implies effort, challenge, and meaning. It does not imply ease, performance, or constant enjoyment.

Yet in contemporary education, engagement has increasingly become a visible metric. We look for movement, colour, calmness, and activity. We equate students being on task with students being deeply involved in learning. This is a seductive trap for teachers and leaders alike.

At the Mathematics Association of NSW Conference, Alan Dougan captured this tension succinctly when he stated, “Engagement is not entertainment.” This distinction matters deeply, particularly for those who lead teaching and learning.

I once walked into what many would consider an ideal classroom. The aesthetics were magnificent. The walls were visually striking, glossy laminated posters everywhere, beautiful little pencil pots for every table group, no clutter, a striking neon light with a big smiley face and fairy lights above the door. Students were calm, compliant, and busy. On the surface, it appeared exemplary, and certainly I knew students were very much so lucky to learn in such a beautiful aesthetic. The question for leaders, however, is not what the classroom looks like, but what students are thinking, grappling with, and making sense of.

This is where leadership must shift from observation to inquiry.

Productive Challenge and Leadership Awareness

Ross Greene, a renowned American clinical psychologist, urges us to look beyond appearances and into the experience of the learner. He reminds us that optimal learning does not occur in spaces of constant comfort, but in environments of productive challenge. Each learner has a zone where they are actively engaged, where demands stretch current skills without overwhelming capacity.

He explains when challenge exceeds capacity, dysregulation can occur. When challenge is too low, stagnation sets in. Both states can look deceptively similar. Students may appear settled, compliant, and cooperative, yet growth is minimal.

For educational leaders, this presents a critical responsibility. Teachers do not need to be convinced that engagement matters. Almost without exception, teachers enter the profession with a deep sense of purpose and a genuine desire for their students to be engaged. What they do need is support to become more reflective and more aware of what engagement truly looks like in their classrooms.

Leadership action here is not evaluation. What is required is coaching.

Reflective leadership questions that promote awareness might include:

What evidence tells you students were experiencing intellectual stretch and challenge in this lesson?
Where did you notice students experiencing productive struggle? What did you see?
Which students found the learning too comfortable and which found it overwhelming How did you adjust in the moment to respond to this range?

These questions honour teacher intent while inviting deeper reflection on practice.

Meaning Making and Moral Purpose

Engagement is also inseparable from meaning. Students must understand why the learning matters and how it connects to something beyond the task itself.

I was reminded of this at the 2025 MANSW Conference in Penrith. In some sessions, I was deeply connected. I listened intently, questioned ideas, and made connections that extended my thinking. In other sessions, I noticed my attention drifting. I checked emails or scrolled my phone, not due to a lack of professionalism, but due to misalignment. I'm just being honest, and I think we all do this at times in our own way - just staring into the space thinking about what we will cook for dinner, thinking about that last Netflix show we watched or what lessons I need to program for the next day.

At times, the content exceeded my readiness due to its complexity. In other sessions, the delivery failed to connect meaningfully to my context.

This experience mirrors what students feel daily in classrooms.

For leaders, this raises an important reflective pause. When we notice disengagement, the question is not what is wrong with the learner, but where misalignment may exist between challenge, accessibility, and purpose.

Leadership coaching questions that surface meaning might include:

What did students understand about why they were learning this?
How did the learning connect to something beyond the classroom?
Which moments sparked curiosity or questioning?
Where did meaning feel unclear or assumed?

In Situ Connection and Instructional Presence

Leadership that promotes engagement requires instructional presence. This means being connected to learning as it is experienced, not only as it is planned or documented.

When leaders engage teachers and students in situ, the focus should be on understanding learning, not judging it.

Practical questions leaders might ask students in situ include:

What are you learning and why does it matter?
What was challenging for you today?
What questions are you still thinking about?

Questions leaders might ask teachers include:

What surprised you about student thinking in this lesson?
What did students find more challenging than you anticipated?
How do you know students were engaged beyond just compliance and doing what they were told?

These conversations cultivate a shared language of engagement and signal that thinking, not performance, is valued.

Moving Beyond Visible Engagement

Visible engagement, where students appear busy, settled, or compliant, is not enough. True engagement requires meaning, challenge, and cognitive stretch.

Amy Berry’s Engagement Continuum, outlined in her book 'Reimagining student engagement: From disrupting to driving' includes the phases disrupting to driving (outlined in the table below). These provide a powerful lens for reflecting honestly on where engagement sits within classrooms and schools. Importantly, this reflection can only occur in environments where relational trust exists and where honest dialogue is welcomed.

Berry reminds us that teachers cannot make students learn. They can, however, create conditions where students choose to engage. Leadership plays a pivotal role in creating those conditions by fostering reflective practice rather than performative compliance.

Effort, Success, and the Desire to repeat this again.

Neuroscience explains that when individuals experience success after genuine effort, the brain releases dopamine, creating a desire to repeat the experience. I experienced this myself when completing my first Hyrox fitness race (sorry not sorry I like the fitness analogies). The challenge was significant. The success was earned. The result was a desire to do it again.

Learning for students works the same way.

When students experience appropriate challenge and personal success, engagement becomes self sustaining. Leaders can support this by coaching teachers to recognise and celebrate effort, persistence, and growth rather than product alone.

Reflective leadership questions might include:

What effort did students invest to achieve success?
How was progress made visible to learners?
What feedback reinforced growth rather than comparison?

Clarity, Agency, and Student Voice

Success criteria are often treated as a compliance requirement rather than a tool for engagement. When used effectively, they clarify purpose, support agency, and enable learners to take ownership of next steps.

Engagement increases when students know what they are aiming for and can recognise progress. Learning should feel measurable and meaningful, much like training toward a physical goal.

Another essential measure of engagement is student voice. If leaders want to know whether students were engaged, the most powerful source of evidence is the students themselves - simply ask them.

Leadership questions that elevate student voice include:

What do students say helped them learn?
What would students change about the learning experience?
How often are student perspectives shaping instructional decisions?

A Leadership Call to Action

Engagement is not about keeping learners entertained.

It is about creating conditions where learners are intellectually invested, appropriately challenged, and actively growing.

For educational leaders, this requires a shift from monitoring engagement to cultivating it through reflective dialogue, coaching questions, and a deep respect for the shared moral purpose teachers bring to their work.

That is the engagement that truly matters.

And it begins with leadership that asks better questions.

References

Berry, A. (2022). Reimagining Student Engagement: From Disrupting to Driving.

Greene, R. (2014). Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges Are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them. Scribner.

Greene, R. (2018). Raising Human Beings. Scribner.

Dougan, A. (2025). MANSW Conference Presentation, Mathematics Association of NSW, Penrith.

Lindsay Burns is an Assistant Principal in Catholic education in Australia. He is dedicated to helping to grow leaders, strengthen teaching, and cultivate learning environments where students and teachers can flourish. Lindsay is the founder of Impact Intentionally. a global community for education leaders to translate contemporary leadership thinking into intentional practice. This piece was originally published January 10, 2026 and is posted here with permission. You can contact Lindsay via email.