Educators indicate growing concern for student apathy in classroom engagements

Many educators are sharing concern around what they describe as a rising trend in student apathy in classrooms. While some blame cell phone access and technology reliance, other educators discuss larger trends in student engagement. Educators specifically discuss engagement strategies like cold-calling to boost student participation in class conversations. 

  • “Students are so apathetic about everything and I honestly don’t know how to combat this anymore. No matter what we do or what I assign, I’ll never compete with TikTok. I try to make it relevant; I try to ask them what they’re into… they just want to scroll and scroll and scroll.” —ELA Teacher, N/A
    • “I’m exhausted. I gave up trying. Either they care or they don’t. Relationships aren’t enough anymore.” —Teacher, N/A
    • “On a side note, I just don’t think we do a lot of the ‘old’ things with kids now. I used paint with my primary classes today and you would’ve thought they died and went to heaven. It was also the first time for my kindergartners to *ever* paint. Kids do very little beyond paper and pencil assignments in their classrooms in my building, especially after 1st grade. The number of upper elementary kids I have to work with to support using glue and scissors because they use them so infrequently is staggering” —Elementary Educator in Colorado
      • “I think a LOT about the way elementary standards have changed has resulted in secondary students who are burned out, disinterested, and DONE.” —ELA Teacher, N/A
      • “I agree with this SO much. I teach kindergarten and we have taken so much away from these poor kids. If I couldn’t do anything fun in elementary school, I would’ve been burnt out by high school, too. It’s awful what we’re making these kids do.” —Elementary Teacher in Texas
    • “It is very frustrating!! It is impossible to compete with technology. We have kids that look like they are working on their computer but have their phone open and leaning on their computer screen. It gets really old. Admin wants to know what more WE can do to help kids pass.” —Teacher, N/A
    • “Why ‘your lessons should be more engaging’ is (usually) silly and why phone bans should be in place and why culture building around academic learning cannot be left to individual teachers but must be approached school wide.” —Instructional Coach in Washington
    • “I feel you. I managed to figure out the phone issue, but trying to do Desmos activities is challenging when students browse the web, shop, and message their friends. It’s tough this year. There needs to be more reflection on getting school internet management tools like NetRef.” —High School Math Teacher in Georgia
    • “I’ve been out of the high school classroom for two years and this just… wasn’t my reality. I still work with teachers who rarely talk about classroom management as a barrier. I even had students create a Tik Tok for a class assignment (self-motivated)!” —Former High School Educator in Alabama
  • “Friends, I don’t know how to get over the apathy piece with my students. I have my usual students who ‘float’ around the room during lessons and get into trouble, but one of my higher academic students told me she’d rather just be at home.” —Elementary Educator in Colorado
  • “I always tell my students that every, single lesson I teach is not going to be super exciting, or unbelievably engaging. Some stuff will be the ‘boring’ learning or work that just needs to get done. This is not social media. This is real life.” —Educator in Illinois 
    • “Thank you!!! I used to tell my students, ‘I’m not a clown and everything isn’t going to be entertaining.’ I love your take on this!! Our students need to have the discipline to learn no matter the content or delivery.” —Educator in Rhode Island
    • “I make sure that throughout the unit or lesson every student has an engaging activity to bring in personal real life experiences by prior knowledge activities for relevancy to the lesson.” —Education Consultant/Retired Educator in North Carolina
    • “I prepare them for my boring lessons too. LOL. I sometimes apologize because I couldn’t think of a way to make it more engaging. ‘My bad, yall, I’m about to lecture for 20 mins.’” —Educator in Philadelphia
    • “Teaching is not a TikTok challenge.  Framing it as a form of entertainment creates false expectations not just for teachers but for students as well. Sometimes learning is ‘boring’ and that’s 100% okay.” —Social Studies Teacher in Texas
    • “A little louder for those in the back.  Every lesson doesn’t need a bell ringer, an engaged activity, a ‘talk to your shoulder partner’ review, or an exit ticket. Sometimes, you just have to cover content.” —High School Educator in Kansas
    • “Teaching can be engaging but not entertaining. Sometimes it’s a rote foundation that just has to be built.” —Elementary Music Teacher in South Carolina
    • “I find myself having this discussion with my students often. Of course I want them to enjoy school and learning. And I strive to make things enjoyable for them. But some things we just have to do that aren’t very fun.” —Educator in Tennessee
    • “Teacher Fatima Belouahi talks about this, too: ‘Their responsibility is to engage in the subject matter, even if it’s not something that interests them.’ Students begin to understand that ‘the lesson will get better if they’re actively participating, and it will be more fun.’” —Edutopia
  • “Want to know what else students almost always describe as a ‘disempowering learning experience’? Cold-calling. Cold-calling is often used as a ‘gotcha’ tactic to catch students off guard, to make an example out of them, so they (appropriately, in my opinion) feel ‘not smart’ and ‘judged’ by their teachers and peers. It’s a dis-engagement strategy for kids who already feel vulnerable and self-conscious.” —High School Social Studies Teacher in Iowa
    • “It also emphasizes: 1. Teacher power, 2. Right and wrong answers, 3. Known-answer questions. —Educator, N/A
    • “At the very least it should not be used before cultivating a culture of learning built on safety and trust. Only then can students feel comfortable taking risks and even then they should be allowed to pass” —Elementary School Teacher in New York City
    • “Two ways to mitigate that. 1) Think time. Let them know they have time to think about the question before you call. Giving rehearsal time is also helpful (I.E turn and talk). 2) Randomize. I have a popsicle stick with every kid’s name in a cup. I’m not picking on you; it’s fate.” —ELA Teacher in Missouri
    • “I use ‘the cards of fate’ with a caveat that when you get called on, you have three options: 1) try to answer 2) ask me a question, then try to answer 3) defer. I either assign you a future question for you to work on answering, or I give extra time while other people answer.” —Teacher in Massachusetts
    • “Yep. In my Latin classes I have a ‘batting order’ so students know when it’s their turn to produce. Lowers anxiety while keeping everyone accountable. Otherwise I ask for volunteers.” —Educator in Ohio
    • “I just go around the circle and give everyone an opportunity. No need to catch people off guard and they can just say they don’t want to answer. It’s literally fine.” —Teacher in New York City
    • “I’ve switched cold-calling with row-based questions. I go down the line and students can anticipate a question that is coming up.  If they are ‘stuck,’ I ask them to ‘phone a friend.’  Hilarity ensues.” —High School Science Teacher in Missouri
    • “I think we need to come up with a term for ‘cold-calling’ that is instead a goal to work and scaffold towards — and used with intentionality and compassion. ‘Warm calling,’ maybe? Because I believe it has a place, if used well and worked up to, in the strong classroom community. To give a warm-calling example: early in the year, students will reflect on their answers first through writing, then will share in small groups — then I’ll call on each group to share out one answer, paying attention to who tends to speak and not speak in each group. That said, I’ve also used this tool in a way I don’t like after the fact, and have seen it actively shut down students in the classroom. So I have lots of mixed thoughts on this, and appreciated this post to push my reflection on it, as few practices are 100% good or bad.” —High School English Teacher in Oregon