The Disengaged Teen: Understanding and Reigniting Pupil Engagement

The national picture: teen engagement is in trouble

The conversation opened with Ernest sharing national insights into pupil engagement in England. Drawing on data from Edurio’s Pupil Experience survey, completed by over 76,000 pupils in 2023/24, he noted that pupil interest in learning has dropped significantly, from 42% in the 2020/21 academic year to just 28% in 2023/24. This decline highlights growing concerns across school communities and underscores the urgent need to address disengagement.

Source: Edurio’s data on Top Education Priorities Report

While engagement is declining across all age groups, the problem is especially acute among teenagers. For older pupils, disengagement is closely tied to wellbeing and long-term academic outcomes. The latest national data reveals some concerning trends: 

Wellbeing levels: Teens report significantly lower physical and mental wellbeing. In Years 8 to 13, only 25% to 35% say they feel well, compared to 60% to 68% in Years 4 to 6.

A framework for engagement

The four modes of learning

In the conversation, Jenny introduced a simple but powerful framework at the heart of The Disengaged Teen, built around four learning modes. These modes describe different ways pupils relate to school and learning, each requiring a distinct response from educators. These are not fixed identities, but dynamic states that shift by subject, environment and emotional context.

1. Passenger Mode

Passive and compliant, pupils in this mode do what’s asked but lack energy or enthusiasm. They may appear well-behaved, but are mentally checked out. Jenny and Rebecca’s research indicates that over 50% of pupils might be primarily operating in passenger mode.

2. Resister Mode

In resister mode, pupils “withdraw or act out.” Jenny explained, “They are dubbed by the system the problem children. We argue they are children with problems.” These learners have a lot of agency, but it is often directed away from learning. “They are letting, with the voice they have, which is not a lot as a student, letting you know that things aren’t working for them.”

3. Achiever Mode

Achievers are often seen as high performers. “They are striving for perfection. They want gold stars on everything that’s put in front of them,” said Jenny. But she warned there is a “fine line between happy achiever and unhappy achiever.” These pupils often tip into perfectionism and “have the highest rate of mental health challenges in the entire system.”

4. Explorer Mode

This is the gold standard of engagement. “This is where curiosity meets drive. Where kids really get invested in their own learning.” Jenny emphasised that this can happen anywhere, not just in school.

Modes are momentary

A key message from Jenny was that these modes are fluid. Pupils can shift between them depending on context. Jenny shared an example from the book: “We show in the book that we have a character who literally is in a different mode in every single class.”

Transcendent thinking: connecting learning to meaning

Jenny introduced the concept of transcendent thinking, based on the work of Dr Mary Helen Immordino-Yang. This refers to students connecting their learning and broader sense of purpose, identity, or the world beyond school. As Jenny explained, “She [Immordino-Yang] really found that meaning-making activated a part of the brain that was very important for wiring multiple brain networks. We need to think way more about not just the what, but the why.” Whether relating King Lear to family dynamics or linking physics to cancer treatment, these connections help pupils find purpose in their learning.

Agentic engagement: giving students a voice that matters

A core theme of the conversation was agentic engagement, supporting students to take active control of their learning. Jenny drew on the research of academic John Marshall Reeve, who conducted 35+ randomised trials across 18 countries to identify high-impact practices.

These autonomy-supportive teaching strategies consistently led to improvements in:

• Academic performance
• Wellbeing and mental health
• Pro-social behaviour

What school leaders can do: from classroom to whole-school design

Jenny described a powerful continuum of influence:

“From an individual teacher in a classroom… to the timetable and opportunities in the school day… to full school design.”

This framing helps school leaders see clearly where they can take action. Whether you’re supporting teachers on the ground or rethinking the structure of your entire school, these practical strategies can help reignite teen engagement, without sacrificing academic rigour.

1. In the classroom: build autonomy and self-efficacy

Jenny highlighted four autonomy-supportive teaching practices that consistently boost engagement, wellbeing and academic outcomes:

• Perspective-taking

Start by validating students’ feelings. Ask, “Why do you find this difficult or boring?” rather than dismissing frustration.

• Invitational language

Replace “Because you have to” with “Here’s why this matters” or “This connects to real life by…”

• Limited, meaningful choices

Offer structured options: different formats for homework or topic pathways within a unit.

• Explanatory rationale

Share the why behind the task. Pupils are more likely to engage when they understand the purpose.

Jenny also emphasised that self-efficacy works best when embedded in classroom culture. She praised a teacher who used a daily visual engagement chart as a simple reflective practice:

“This is a metacognitive exercise without teaching a metacognition class.”

2. Across the school day: make space for curiosity and ownership

Jenny encouraged schools to create “explorer moments” in the timetable, opportunities for students to pursue interest-led learning and develop ownership. Here are a few global examples of educational practices that can promote agency:

• EPQs (Extended Project Qualifications): These independent research projects give students significant control over what they study and how they manage their time. Jenny noted: “One of my favourite bits about the EPQ is that the student is required to work out their meeting times with the teacher.”
• Mastery learning models: Built on the idea that students move forward only once they’ve truly understood a concept, allowing them to progress at their own pace and build confidence along the way. Jenny shared one example: “I talked to one young woman who was doing an urban parks project… She had identified all of the scientific academic goals she was going to meet, as well as some of the skills-related ones.”

3. At whole-school level: Strengthen relationships and shared responsibility

Trusted relationships in school

Jenny’s message throughout the conversation was clear: engagement improves when students have at least one adult who truly sees and supports them. That adult doesn’t have to be a teacher—it could be a pastoral lead, a school officer, or a mentor. What matters is that someone makes the effort to connect.

For school leaders, this means going beyond isolated acts of care and embedding connection into the school’s culture. Structured mentoring or coaching models can help ensure that every pupil has someone looking out for them. Building this culture also involves empowering all staff—not , classroom teachers—to notice, support and relate to pupils.

To guide strategic efforts, schools can use surveys or feedback tools to understand where relational gaps exist. Not every child will seek out help—but leadership can help ensure no one goes unseen.

Partnering with parents at home

Many parents of teens want to help, but often feel unsure how. Jenny highlighted that even in adolescence, parents remain highly influential, sometimes as much as teachers or peers. But their support looks different now, and they need tools and encouragement to adapt.

Leaders can make this easier by offering practical, culturally sensitive resources that help families talk about school in a meaningful way. Simple scripts for responding to disengagement (“This is pointless!”) or strategies for making content relevant to home life can empower parents to feel useful and connected.

Jenny also reflected on how successful some schools were at engaging parents in phone policy conversations—not by demanding compliance, but by giving them clarity and confidence. The same principle applies to learning. Schools that treat parents as partners in engagement, not just recipients of academic updates, can dramatically strengthen home–school alignment.

Next steps

By understanding how pupils connect (or disconnect) with their learning, schools can respond with empathy, insight and practical action. The framework in the The Disengaged Teen offers a new lens for interpreting pupil behaviour and designing more supportive, engaging environments.

For those who want to go deeper, The Disengaged Teen is full of evidence, stories and strategies to help educators and parents tackle this challenge head-on. Find more information about the book here.

Find out how engaged pupils are in your school.

Use Edurio’s nationally benchmarked pupil surveys to gain insights into engagement, wellbeing, and learning experience.