Engaging Young Adolescents in Learning

Abstract

This chapter foregrounds the context of young adolescent learning in schools, emphasising that engaging young adolescents is crucial to achieving optimal educational outcomes. The authors explain their contention that all young adolescent students are at risk of disengagement or underachievement. The approach taken in this book reflects current educational trends away from a deficit view of young adolescents at risk of disengaging from schooling towards a more holistic view of the factors that lead to student disengagement. In this chapter, the authors explore the challenge of engaging young adolescents in learning, including those students with complex learning needs, who exhibit challenging or aggressive behaviour, or who have additional support needs; and interrogate the factors that may contribute to student disengagement and those that enhance engagement.