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 21st 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outdated, linear process.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

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?

“When I am not engaged, it is because the work is not intellectually engaging.”

― HSSSE 2009 Student Respondent


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 non-

structure 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 multi-

dimensional 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

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

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


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.

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

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

- New Vista Student


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 did-

without 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

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