Our Future Of series features one-on-one conversations that explore the critical ideas, innovations, and challenges shaping the future of Pre-K-12 education.
In our latest episode, Josh Lotstein, the Foundation’s senior director of grantmaking, sat down with Rebecca Winthrop to discuss the future of student engagement.
Rebecca is director of the Center for Universal Education at The Brookings Institution where she studies how parents and educators can work together to help children flourish. She’s also co-author of The Disengaged Teen, which combines original research with real-life stories to explore how parents can spark curiosity, strengthen motivation, and help adolescents build the skills they need to thrive.
Their conversation dives into the state of engagement in classrooms today and why engaging students in their learning matters more than ever.
“The expectations and requirements for the skills young people need to thrive when they leave school—whether that be in work or participating as constructive citizens—have increasingly required more sophisticated, higher-order thinking skills,” said Rebecca. “I often think of it as: kids used to be able to kind of coast by and get what they need, and now they can’t.”
Rebecca also shares what she’s learned from listening directly to students, including how they’re navigating artificial intelligence and what their concerns reveal about their desire to learn.
“The number one thing students tell us is they are so worried about becoming dumb…They don’t just want to take the shortcut. And that sort of qualitative data has been backed up regularly in large-scale survey data. Teens and young adults are even more worried about their cognitive decline from AI than even loss of jobs.”
Watch the full conversation and stay up-to-date on the Future Of series by subscribing to the Foundation’s newsletter, following us on LinkedIn, or subscribing to our YouTube channel.
Discover more Future Of conversations, including our conversation with Ben Kornell, co-founder of Edtech Insiders, about his vision for the future of student success.
