Confronting the Crisis of Engagement
Creating Focus and Resilience for Students, Staff, and Communities
- Douglas Reeves - Creative Leadership Solutions
- Nancy Frey - San Diego State University, USA
- Douglas Fisher - San Diego State University, USA
Staff Development & Professional Learning | Student Engagement & Motivation | Teacher Resources
Stop apathy in its tracks with the 5 C’s of engagement
Disengagement, disenchantment, distress—the three “D’s” of many post-pandemic schools. If we are to find our way back from this brink, every student, teacher, and leader must relearn how to lean in. It’s time to focus, know one another, and stop chasing so many initiatives. It’s time to shake things up so learners want to participate.
From faculty meetings to student conferences, casual greetings to grading, you can learn to use practices that most powerfully reflect the Five C’s of Engagement:
- Connections — feeling known, valued, and tethered to others
- Conditions — being able to learn in a stable environment in which expectations are high
- Challenge — engaging in an endeavor knowing your “high jumps” in terms of intellectual and creative risks will be supported
- Control — the privilege of learning with a balance between ownership and support
- Collaboration — deepening one’s knowledge and identity as a learner by being skillful at relationship-building
Our students are looking to us as the grownups in the room to model what it looks like to belong, believe, and balance high expectations with compassionate support. With Confronting the Crisis of Engagement in hand, you have the guide to make that happen.
Free resources
Webinar: Confronting the Crisis of Engagement
This webinar provides the practical tools needed to improve collaboration between students, teachers, and leaders for better engagement. When students are engaged with peers and adults they develop the skills necessary to organize and focus – essential for success in secondary school, post-secondary education, and the world beyond school.
Chapter 1: Connections
Chapter 1 of Confronting the Crisis of Engagement lays out the essential nature of relationships; the components of safe and meaningful relationships; common mistakes in relationship building; student leadership; and establishing, restoring, and maintaining staff relationships.