Five Paths of Student Engagement: Blazing the Trail to Learning and Success

by Dennis Shirley, Andy Hargreaves

This is a breakthrough book on student engagement. Join Dennis Shirley and Andy Hargreaves, two award-winning authors and leaders in their field, on a profound educational quest that will take you through exciting and challenging terrain. Five Paths of Student Engagement will open your eyes, heart, and mind and empower you to implement practices that lead directly to your students' well-being, learning, and success. By integrating psychological and sociological perspectives, and using inspiring examples from seven years of research, this book delves deeply into the what, why, and how of student engagement. It reveals who and what the true enemies of student engagement are, and shows you how to defeat them. It will enrich and reward your work for years to come. Utilize research-based strategies to promote active engagement in the classroom and build the foundation for student
Preface
Chapter 1: From Achievement to Engagement--Two Ages of Educational Change
Chapter 2: Theories of Engagement and Motivation--From Maslow to Flow
Chapter 3: Three Myths of Engagement--Relevance, Technology, and Fun
Chapter 4: The Five Enemies of Engagement--How to Defeat Them
Chapter 5: Standardized Testing--The Archenemy of Engagement
Chapter 6: The Five Pathways of Student Engagement--In Theory and Practice
Chapter 7: The Promise of Engagement and the Battle for Change
References
Index

280 pages, Paperback

Published June 18, 2021

About the author

Dr. Dennis Shirley’s work in education spans from the microlevel of assisting beginning teachers to the macrolevel of designing and guiding large-scale research and intervention projects for school districts, states, and nonprofit agencies. Dr. Shirley recently collaborated with Andy Hargreaves on a study of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust Raising Achievement Transforming Learning Project, which raised pupil learning results in over 200 schools in England at double the national rate in a 2-year period. The findings of that research have been presented in Hargreaves’ and Shirley’s first collaboratively authored book, The Fourth Way.
For 4 years, Dr. Shirley has led a teacher inquiry project along with Boston Public Schools teacher-leader Elizabeth MacDonald; their research has been published in The Mindful Teacher. Dr. Shirley serves on the Scholars Forum of the Public Education Network, advises the One Square Kilometer of Education school improvement project of the Freudenberg Foundation in Berlin, and collaborates with the California Teachers Association on improving 480 schools in struggling circumstances. He has led three school improvement efforts with more than 13 million dollars in funding, and his research has been translated into German, Swedish, Spanish, and French. He holds a doctorate from Harvard University.

Reviews

[Angie B · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a little disappointing. It is nothing I didn't know about student engagement and teacher's role in engaging students. It was very disheartening as it focused on the areas outside of teachers control such as provincial wide standardized testing and politics involved in education. I found it difficult to pull out positive strategies that could be used in my own classroom that I'm not doing already. I wouldn't recommend this book to others, on the basis that it does not provide any new thoughts or ideas for individual teachers to incorporate. I would encourage those in upper education, such as superintendents or people involved further up to give this a good read and think about the things they can change at the higher levels that would help make the teacher's job of engaging students much easier and not such a disheartening battle.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough overview of the psychological and sociological research and understandings related to learning engagement, along with a readily accessible organizing framework for practical action.

[Susanne Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best professional books I have read in a while. I warn you that it is very much an academic book, the kind I would be assigned in an undergrad. or graduate class. It would be my wish that every school leader would read this book and adopt everything forthwith! From the national level on down to the school level, for realz. I was highlighting and adding stars and exclamation points throughout. Let's do all the things!