In Context

There are myriad reasons that students become less engaged in learning as they grow older, including influences from both within and outside the school. As Lumsden (1994) notes, the earliest influences on children's motivation to learn are parents and others in the home. When students enter school, their level of interest and desire to engage in learning are also heavily influenced by teachers, administrators, the school environment, and their classmates (Lumsden, 1994). Although it may sometimes seem that teachers have no control over students' attitudes about learning, researchers confirm that they do (Anderman & Midgley, 1998). "To a very large degree, students expect to learn if their teachers expect them to learn, " notes Stipek (as cited in Lumsden, 1994, p. 2).

Developmental factors and students' perceptions about their own abilities also play into their level of engagement in learning. The older students get, the less likely they are to take risks and engage themselves fully in activities at which they are not sure they will succeed. According to Lumsden (1994), "although young children tend to maintain high expectations for success even in the face of repeated failure, older students do not" (p. 2). To older students, "failure following high effort appears to carry more negative implications -- especially for their self-concept of ability -- than failure that results from minimal or no effort" (Lumsden, 1994, p. 2). Students' attitudes about their capabilities and their interpretation of success and failure further affect their willingness to engage themselves in learning (Anderman & Midgley, 1998). For example, students who understand poor performance as a lack of attainable skills, rather than as some innate personal deficiency, are more likely to re-engage themselves in a task and try again. Students whose self-concept is bound up in their history of failure, on the other hand, are less likely to be motivated to learn.

Mac Iver and Reuman (1994) add that middle school and high school-age students' level of engagement in school is also highly influenced by peers. As students grow older, their motivation to engage in learning may be influenced by their social group just as much as, if not more than it is by teachers, parents, and other adults. While peer influences can be either positive or negative, it is not uncommon for older students to discourage one another from actively participating in school (Mac Iver & Reuman, 1994).

Whether the decrease in student engagement is the result of unmotivated students or of school practices that fail to sufficiently interest and engage all learners, an ample body of research suggests that the situation can be changed (Brooks, Freiburger, & Grotheer, 1998; Dev, 1997; Skinner & Belmont, 1991).