We talk about engagement like it’s something we can flip on — a switch, an app, a strategy.
“What’s your engagement strategy?”

But after decades in the classroom, one truth keeps showing up:

Engagement isn’t something we create. It’s something that emerges.

Students don’t engage because lessons are flashy or entertaining.
They engage when the work matters, when they have ownership, and when their thinking is required.

In this episode, Dan challenges a common framing that impacts both classrooms and schools: we often treat engagement as a performance problem instead of a design problem. When we chase activity, speed, and surface-level participation, we confuse busy with engaged — and that’s where frustration, burnout, and disengagement creep in.

Through real classroom stories, analogies from sports and the arts, and practical reflection questions, this episode reframes engagement around cognitive demand, relevance, autonomy, and purpose — not compliance or quiet classrooms.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why engagement is often misread as entertainment or activity

• The critical difference between compliance and true engagement

• How cognitive demand and relevance drive student motivation

• Why some of the most engaged students don’t look compliant

• What teachers and administrators can design differently to support deeper learning

• Three reflection questions to reset how you think about engagement heading into the new year

This episode is especially timely for educators on break — not as another “do more” conversation, but as an invitation to rethink what’s worth designing in the first place.