The material below was generated by Google’s NotebookLM. The material was an amalgamation of the resources in the resource summary section below. These resources were either referenced in the book or supported the discussions within the book, especially those related to the use of generative AI.
The Book
The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better by Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop
Resource Summaries
Here are brief summaries of the resources referenced in this discussion:
• Excerpts from “The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better, Feel Better, and Live Better” with Rebecca Winthrop and Jenny Anderson (YouTube): Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop’s “The Disengaged Teen” addresses the teenage mental health crisis and empowers parents to foster engagement. They present four dynamic learning modes: Passenger, Achiever, Resistor, and Explorer, which are fluid reactions to environments, not fixed identities. The aim is to help teens build “exploration muscles”. Key strategies include autonomy-supportive parenting (fostering trust and choices) and nurturing the “curriculum of the home” (discussions, modeling learning), which is twice as predictive of success as socioeconomic status. Parents should nudge kids to make their own plans rather than nag, as it’s more effective. The book encourages playing the long game, focusing on well-being and long-term engagement over just grades.
• Excerpts from “Jenny Anderson, Rebecca Winthrop, Ph.D, and Charles Duhigg – The Disengaged Teen” (YouTube): This source features Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop discussing the motivation behind their book, “The Disengaged Teen.” They share personal anecdotes that reveal how traditional metrics like grades can obscure true student engagement and motivation. The authors detail their extensive research, which identified the four modes of engagement (Passenger, Achiever, Resistor, Explorer). The conversation provides practical advice for parents and educators on navigating these modes, emphasizing the importance of autonomy, identifying student “sparks,” avoiding nagging, and promoting well-being over perfect outcomes.
• Excerpts from “Educating Kids in the Age of A.I. | The Ezra Klein Show” with Rebecca Winthrop and Jenny Anderson (YouTube): This transcript details a conversation with Rebecca Winthrop, Director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institute, and co-author Jenny Anderson, discussing their book “The Disengaged Teen: Helping Kids Learn Better Feel Better and Live Better”. The discussion addresses the profound shift in education due to AI, the decline in reading among teens, and the need to rethink the purpose of education beyond job readiness. It introduces their “four modes of engagement” (Passenger, Achiever, Resistor, Explorer) and offers insights on how to foster engagement and prepare children for an uncertain future, emphasizing human relationships and critical thinking over rote learning.
• Excerpts from “Assigning AI: Seven Ways of Using AI in Class” by Ethan Mollick (Substack): This source, written by an AI expert, explores how educators are already grappling with AI as both a threat and an opportunity. Mollick advocates embracing AI, even making it mandatory in his classes, and details seven ways AI can be used in classrooms: as a tutor, coach, mentor, teammate, tool, simulator, and student. He provides specific prompts and cautions about AI’s limitations, such as hallucination and bias, emphasizing the critical role of the teacher in guiding AI applications. The article particularly highlights AI as a coach (for metacognition) and as a tutor (for knowledge acquisition).
• Excerpts from “Oxford Researchers Discovered How to Use AI To Learn Like A Genius” (YouTube): This video explains how Oxford University teaches its students to use AI for more effective and efficient learning, focusing on AI as a “trainer” rather than a “doer”. It highlights retrieval practice as the most effective form of learning and suggests using AI for Socratic questioning, generating multi-level explanations, creating practice questions, and aiding academic reading by challenging students to think critically. The video also points out the benefit of AI in reducing embarrassment for students asking questions.
• Excerpts from “Use of generative AI tools to support learning | University of Oxford” (Official Website): This official guidance from Oxford University provides an overview of how generative AI tools (like ChatGPT) can ethically support academic skills while emphasizing that AI cannot replace human critical thinking. It outlines five key considerations, six tips for effective use (e.g., cross-checking accuracy, providing context, using personas), and specific ideas for leveraging AI in academic reading, writing, and general learning support. The guide reinforces the necessity of critical appraisal and proper attribution when using AI.
• Excerpts from “Using AI to Implement Effective Teaching Strategies.pdf” by Dr. Ethan Mollick & Dr. Lilach Mollick: This paper provides practical guidance for educators on using AI to implement five evidence-based teaching strategies that are often time-consuming to execute manually. These strategies include providing varied examples and explanations, addressing student misconceptions, frequent low-stakes testing, assessing student learning, and distributed practice. The authors present specific prompts for Large Language Models (LLMs) and emphasize the critical role of instructor expertise in vetting AI output due to potential hallucinations and biases. They argue AI can act as a “force multiplier” for instructors.
I. Introduction: The Shifting Landscape of Education (5 minutes)
Today’s Focus: We’ll explore the insights from Anderson and Winthrop’s research and how AI can be a powerful ally in fostering student engagement, rather than merely serving as a tool for shortcutting learning.
II. Understanding Student Engagement: The Four Modes (15 minutes)
Introducing the Framework: Anderson and Winthrop’s research identified four fluid and dynamic modes of engagement that kids move in and out of constantly. These are not labels for children, but descriptions of their behavior in different learning contexts.
Passenger Mode
Description: Kids who are “coasting,” doing the bare minimum to get by, are often bored or overwhelmed, but may still get good grades. They are behaviorally present but emotionally/cognitively disengaged.
AI Connection: This is where AI poses a significant threat. Students in passenger mode might use AI to “shortcut the assignments,” such as having ChatGPT summarize readings or write essays, thus avoiding the actual learning process. This prevents them from developing critical thinking and writing skills.
Achiever Mode
Description: Kids striving for excellence, high effort, aiming for “gold stars” and perfect outcomes.
“Achiever Conundrum”: While seemingly ideal, this mode can lead to unhappy achiever syndrome, characterized by fragility, fear of failure, anxiety, and even depression, stemming from an insatiable pursuit of perfection. They may miss out on developing creativity and true self-awareness because they’re focused solely on external validation.
AI Connection: AI can perform many of the “excellent follower” tasks that Achievers are trained for. The skills Achievers focus on (following procedures, getting things “right”) are becoming automatable, making these skills incomplete for a world where critical thinking and initiative are paramount.
Resistor Mode
Description: Kids who are outwardly disengaged, acting out, withdrawing, or disrupting. They are often labeled “problem children” but are “children with problems”.
“Gumption”: Resistors actually possess strong agency, but it’s currently pointed away from learning. Their behavior often sends a clear message that “this isn’t working for me”.
AI Connection: While not directly addressed in sources for this mode, AI’s potential for personalized support and adaptive learning could help address the underlying issues (e.g., being overwhelmed or feeling a lack of belonging) that drive resistance, potentially offering a path to re-engagement.
Explorer Mode
Description: The desired mode is where kids are deeply engaged, curious, proactive, and intrinsically motivated. They actively pursue their interests and make meaning from their learning experiences. This leads to better achievement, mental health, and resilient learning skills.
“Spark”: Finding a child’s “spark” – a genuine interest or passion – is crucial, as this intrinsic drive spills over into other areas of learning and life.
Goal: The goal for all students is to cultivate this explorer mindset.
III. Leveraging AI to Foster Engagement and Learning (15 minutes)
AI as a “Force Multiplier” for Educators:
◦ AI can help teachers implement “challenging but well-proven pedagogical strategies” that are often too time-consuming.
◦ This is about AI supporting educators, not replacing them.
AI to Promote Personalized Learning & Deeper Understanding:
◦ AI as a Tutor/Coach: AI offers the potential for individualized support, adapting to a student’s unique learning style and pace without the embarrassment of asking questions in front of peers.
▪ Mollick’s View: AI can serve as an “AI-coach” to increase metacognition (e.g., reflection on team experiences). It can also be an “AI-tutor” that pushes students to generate their own answers through leading questions, which is key to learning.
▪ Winthrop/Anderson’s Caution: While promising, the concept of a universal AI tutor is “probably not yet” fully realized due to issues like hallucination and lack of human perceptiveness. Emphasize that “human instruction to oversee the process” is crucial.
◦ Retrieval Practice: Oxford University promotes AI for retrieval practice, a highly effective learning method. AI can facilitate Socratic questioning, provide multi-level explanations, and create practice questions to deepen understanding.
◦ Varying Examples & Explanations: AI can rapidly generate numerous and varied examples and multiple explanations of complex concepts, tailored to different student levels and learning styles. This helps students decontextualize ideas and build deeper mental maps.
AI to Spark Curiosity and Relevance:
◦ AI can act as a bridge between abstract school content and the real world.
◦ Encourage students (and parents) to use AI to explore the “why” and “how” of topics, making learning relevant (e.g., asking about real-world applications of quadratic equations).
AI for “Learning-to-Learn” Skills (Metacognition):
◦ AI can help students reflect on their learning journey, identify obstacles, and devise strategies for improvement.
◦ It can assist with organizing notes, enhancing language study, and developing coding skills.
The Evolving Role of the Teacher:
◦ AI will not replace teachers, but it “changes the job of the teacher quite substantially”.
◦ Teachers become managers, editors, supervisors, coaches, and fact-checkers. Their role shifts to orchestrating teaching and learning experiences, guiding students in their AI use, and providing human connection and mentorship. The teacher maintains the “hand on the steering wheel”.
IV. Rethinking Education for the AI Age (7 minutes)
The Purpose of Education Reimagined:
◦ In a world where AI can pass exams and write essays, we must fundamentally rethink the “purpose of education”.
◦ It’s less about transactional knowledge transmission and more about developing “flexible competencies,” self-knowledge, and the ability to navigate uncertainty.
◦ The “deal” of traditional education (grades = good job) is being “thrown into some chaos” by AI.
Prioritizing Human Skills & Relationships:
◦ AI should not lead to a “frictionless world” that prevents children from developing the “muscle of doing hard things” or essential human skills.
◦ Emphasis on human-to-human interaction, collaboration, empathy, and self-regulation that occurs in a classroom setting.
◦ The “screens and phones debacle” offers a crucial lesson: caution, intentionality, and avoiding FOMO (fear of missing out) when adopting new technology. AI products should be “designed for children” with appropriate guardrails.
Parents’ Role: The “Curriculum of the Home”:
◦ Parents have a “huge impact” on student engagement.
◦ Focus on discussions about learning content (not just grades), modeling the thrill of learning, and leaning into their child’s interests.
◦ Foster autonomy: Give kids space to make choices and take small, safe risks, rather than nagging. “Nagging doesn’t work” – it shuts down the problem-solving part of the brain.
◦ What parents do at home is “two times more predictive of learning and outcomes… than socioeconomic status”.
V. Conclusion & Q&A (3 minutes)
Key Takeaways: AI presents profound challenges and opportunities. Thoughtful integration, guided by educational expertise and a clear focus on human development, is essential.
Moving Forward “Together”: This is an unsettled but exciting time, where we get to decide the future of education by fostering experimentation and shared approaches.
“You have good kids,” and the strategies discussed can help unlock their motivation and prepare them for a future alongside AI.
Q&A…
Scott Le Duc’s Resources for Presentation
- RemNote
- Google NotebookLM
- Audible.com bookmarks
- Scott’s Diigo Social Bookmarks
- Scott’s Class Blog, capitalcomtech.info
- Scott’s Blog Post Templates are here, mrleduc.edublogs.org
Jeff Su’s Master the Perfect ChatGPT Prompt Formula (in just 8 minutes)!
Jeff Su’s Learn 80% of NotebookLM in Under 13 Minutes!
Pre-Session Poll Results
PROMPT: You are a professional presenter and educator. You are presenting at a CTE conference and presenting material from the Book The Disengaged Teen. The audience is career and tech teachers. Use the resources in this notebook to create a short, bulleted list of material to answer the questions included below from the survey responses from conference session attendees. Here are the poll results…
How to assist students with research, independent work, and troubleshooting their AI-based projects.
how to encourage student engagement during class
How to get disengaged students in the game.
How can we can help students to become the Explorer and engage in epistemology
Define the disengagement!
How can we teach with the aid of AI responsibly?
Some strategies to reach some of my students
NotebookLM’s Results
Good evening, career and technical education teachers! I’m delighted to be here today to discuss key insights from “The Disengaged Teen” and how they can empower us in our vital work. Based on your survey responses, let’s dive into some practical strategies.
Here’s a breakdown of material relevant to your questions:
• Define the disengagement!
◦ Disengagement is multifaceted, indicating when students are not motivated to dig in and learn.
◦ It encompasses behavioral engagement (showing up, participating, doing homework), emotional engagement (finding school interesting, exciting, feeling they belong), and cognitive engagement (applying learning, connecting ideas).
◦ Research has identified four modes of engagement:
▪ Passenger mode: Kids are physically present and often get good grades but are bored and doing the bare minimum. They’ve “dropped out of learning”3…. This can be because school is either too easy or too hard for them.
▪ Achiever mode: Students put in high effort to get good grades and gold stars, developing skills like goal orientation and persistence. However, they can tip into “unhappy achiever mode” where they strive for perfection, leading to fragility, high anxiety, and poor mental health outcomes4…. They often lack self-awareness about what they truly care about and miss opportunities to develop creativity and initiative.
▪ Resistor mode: These students are often seen as “problem children,” acting out, withdrawing, or disrupting. They may have high chronic absenteeism. While disengaged, they possess “chutzpah and gumption” and are signaling that “things aren’t working for them”….
▪ Explorer mode: The ideal state, where students are engaged across all fronts – behaviorally, emotionally, cognitively, and agentically (proactive and curious). They love what they’re learning and dig in, showing excitement and building resilient, independent learning skills…. Less than 4% of middle and high school students regularly experience this in school.
• How to encourage student engagement during class & How to get disengaged students in the game.
◦ Shift students towards Explorer mode: The goal is to move students out of Passenger, Achiever, and Resistor modes.
◦ Cultivate autonomy and agency: Give students choices and a say in their learning. This means letting them make small decisions and experience the consequences, fostering self-driven learning…. For example, instead of nagging about homework, ask them their plan for getting it done and trust them to execute it.
◦ Identify and lean into their “spark”: Discover what genuinely interests and motivates your students, even if it’s not directly academic or “productive” in the traditional sense. When students find their spark, it creates an internal drive that spills over into other areas of their learning and life…. Schools in North Dakota, for instance, have used “studios” where students design their own classes around passions like creating an escape room based on historical events.
◦ Prioritize discussion and curiosity: Engage students in conversations about the content of what they’re learning, not just their performance…. Model your own curiosity and enthusiasm for learning.
◦ Address underlying issues for resistor students: Their resistance often stems from overwhelm, a lack of belonging, or mental health challenges. Understanding the “why” behind their behavior is crucial, and addressing these barriers can quickly help them re-engage, sometimes even more rapidly than students in other modes because they already possess strong agency….
◦ Rethink “Achiever” strategies: For students aiming for perfection, encourage small risks and emphasize well-being over constant striving for flawless outcomes. Help them understand that failing and bouncing back builds resilience – a crucial skill7….
• How can we help students to become the Explorer and engage in epistemology?
◦ Becoming an Explorer means being proactive and curious about learning.
◦ Epistemology, or the nature of knowledge, is implicitly addressed by teaching students to critically evaluate information in an age where AI can “make stuff up”….
◦ Use AI to foster critical thinking, not just provide answers:
▪ Encourage students to generate their own answers: AI can be prompted to ask leading questions and push students to articulate their thinking, similar to a Socratic tutor….
▪ Compare student work with AI output: Students can summarize a text or generate examples, then compare their work to AI’s output to identify gaps in their understanding or critique AI’s accuracy.
▪ Fact-check AI: Explicitly teach students to cross-check AI-generated information against established, reliable sources….
◦ Model a love for learning: Share your own intellectual curiosities and how you explore new topics, including using AI.
• How to assist students with research, independent work, and troubleshooting their AI-based projects.
◦ AI as a “force multiplier” for learning: AI can significantly extend student performance and understanding if used thoughtfully….
◦ AI as a Coach: AI can prompt students to reflect on experiences (e.g., team projects), encouraging metacognition. Students need instructions on how to interact with AI responsibly, understanding its limitations and taking charge of the process….
◦ AI as a Tutor: While a “universal AI tutor” is still developing, AI can help students understand concepts by explaining ideas, providing examples and analogies, and asking leading questions to help students generate their own answers…. Teachers can use AI as an in-class exercise to teach responsible use.
◦ Supporting Academic Tasks:
▪ Reading: AI can help generate lists of key terms, thought-provoking questions, or alternative explanations for complex topics. Students can summarize texts themselves and then compare with AI-generated summaries to improve critical reading….
▪ Writing: AI can provide feedback on grammar and structure, help overcome writer’s block, and suggest ideas for visuals. However, it cannot replace the development of these skills, and all AI outputs must be critically reviewed.
▪ Coding: AI can suggest ways to get started, recommend languages/environments, and help with functional code chunks. Students should still write and test their own code and verify AI suggestions.
◦ Troubleshooting AI-based projects: Students must be taught that AI “makes stuff up” (hallucinates) and that its outputs are “unpredictable” and “statistical”34…. This provides a learning opportunity for students to be in charge and critically evaluate the AI’s responses.
• How can we teach with the aid of AI responsibly?
◦ Teacher’s pivotal role: AI should be a tool to augment teaching, not replace human instructors. Teachers remain critical for assessing AI output, tailoring its use, and guiding student learning….
◦ Ethical use and academic integrity: Teach students about plagiarism and the need for clear attribution when using AI tools. Unauthorized AI use can lead to academic penalties.
◦ Transparency and Critical Appraisal: Make it clear that AI is a statistical model, not a human. Teach students to always cross-check AI-generated outputs for accuracy against established sources….
◦ Context and Limitations: AI can generate errors, reflect biases, and draw on outdated data. Teach students to provide significant context in their prompts and to be aware of the AI’s limitations….
◦ Avoid “FOMO” (Fear Of Missing Out): Do not adopt AI just because it’s new. Use it when it solves a “real problem” in education, such as providing explanations or examples that are time-consuming for teachers to create manually….
◦ AI for Teachers: AI can be a “force multiplier” for educators, helping to implement evidence-based teaching strategies more easily. This includes generating multiple examples, varied explanations, low-stakes tests, assessing student learning, and distributed practice materials…. This frees up teacher time to focus more on students.
◦ Focus on uniquely human skills: In an AI-integrated world, the premium shifts to human capacities like critical thinking, creativity, communication, social-emotional skills, and interpersonal interaction. Education should prioritize these, rather than skills easily automated by AI….
◦ AI Literacy: Beyond just using AI, teach students how AI works, its risks, benefits, and the ethical considerations of incorporating it into their lives. This includes understanding its addictive potential and how companies incentivize its use.
• Some strategies to reach some of my students.
◦ Tailored approaches: Recognize that students are in different modes of engagement (Passenger, Achiever, Resistor) and adjust your strategies accordingly.
◦ Nudging, not nagging: Avoid constant criticism or “nagging,” as research shows it can shut down the problem-solving part of a teenager’s brain. Instead, gently nudge them towards planning and responsibility….
◦ Model the thrill of learning: Share your own curiosities and how you learn new things. Curiosity is contagious.
◦ Empower through choice and ownership: Give students agency over their learning, letting them practice making choices. This helps them become self-driven learners, crucial for navigating an uncertain future….
◦ Connect learning to the real world: Show the relevance of academic concepts to students’ lives and the broader world. Use AI to bridge this gap by asking it to explain how abstract concepts apply in real-world contexts….
◦ Address mental health and belonging: Recognize that student disengagement can stem from mental health struggles or a lack of belonging. Schools should foster human-to-human socialization and provide support for emotional well-being….
◦ Utilize AI for differentiation: While not fully personalized, AI can help teachers differentiate instruction by generating varied examples, explanations, and practice questions tailored to different student levels and needs….
I hope this comprehensive overview provides valuable insights for your work with career and technical students. Thank you!
Post-session Survey
- Please fill in the anonymous What Works and What Doesn’t Google Form
- Here is another version with names: More of, Less of Feedback Form
- This will help improve these workshops – THANKS!
Scott Le Duc 