After spending nearly two years studying instructor rapport and student engagement, I came to understand a few new things that have reshaped my teaching philosophy and can hopefully inform yours.
Generation Alpha is the first generation raised entirely in a digital world, the first true generation of digital natives. These students have never known life without smartphones, streaming or instant access to information. Many experienced portions of their education through virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This brings different expectations, communication styles and learning experiences into CTE classrooms. Many educators respond with asking how to regain students’ attention. A better question may be: How do we earn it?
How do we earn students’ attention?
Engagement isn’t something teachers simply create through entertaining lessons or charisma. Nor is it something students either possess or lack. Instead, engagement develops when students experience a classroom where they feel psychologically safe, capable of succeeding and invested in the learning occurring.
While my research was conducted within the context of school-based agricultural education, the findings extend well beyond agriculture. The encouraging news? Building those conditions doesn’t require an entirely new curriculum or abandoning your current teaching methods. More often than not, it begins with small, intentional instructional choices each day.
Today’s students aren’t necessarily less motivated. In fact, many educators describe this generation as highly curious, creative and eager to solve authentic problems. But they are responding to a world that has changed dramatically. While clear expectations and classroom management remain essential, today’s learners seek to understand why a skill or lesson matters. Why a procedure is important. How this lesson connects to their future career or lives.
What has changed is the pathway to student engagement.
Students increasingly invest in learning when they understand its purpose and feel like active participants in the process. That shift presents an incredible opportunity for CTE. Because CTE naturally answers one of students’ favorite questions: “When will I ever use this?”
Every welding bead, patient assessment, floral arrangement or julienned carrot connects directly to real career applications. CTE has always excelled at making learning relevant. The challenge now is extending that same authenticity into the relationships and instructional experiences surrounding those technical skills. In other words, teaching the content is no longer enough. Students also need to experience the classroom as a place where they are respected, challenged and trusted.
Fortunately, those ideas aren’t separate from technical instruction. They’re what make technical instruction more effective. In my research, students consistently described their most engaging classrooms not as the easiest nor the most entertaining. Instead, they described classrooms where instructors genuinely cared about them, maintained high expectations, and created an environment wherein asking questions, making mistakes, and trying again felt safe.
Build rapport with students.
The students in my research consistently valued instructors who were approachable and authentic. One of the strongest themes emerging from both instructors and students was the importance of psychological safety. This is the belief that students could ask questions, admit mistakes, or attempt challenging tasks without fear of embarrassment or ridicule. In CTE classrooms, where students are often demonstrating technical skills in front of peers, this sense of safety becomes especially important.
Mistakes are inevitable. Learning depends on students being willing to take risks before they’ve mastered a skill. When students worry more about looking incompetent than improving, learning comes to a screeching halt. Psychological safety creates an environment where accountability is productive rather than intimidating. In my study, students described valuing instructors who challenged them while simultaneously communicating optional support, ultimately giving students autonomy in their work while boosting competence.
For CTE educators, that balance is especially powerful. Technical careers demand high standards, precision and responsibility. Students should experience those expectations in the classroom. But they should also experience instructors who are approachable enough that asking for help feels welcomed and encouraged. The most effective instructors in this study didn’t sacrifice structure to build relationships. They used relationships to strengthen structure and student competence.
Foster students’ sense of autonomy.
Giving students more autonomy doesn’t mean giving up control. In reality, students don’t need or even want unlimited freedom. They need opportunities to make decisions that matter and gain a sense of ownership in their education. Across the study, students responded positively when instructors incorporated choice into learning experiences, listened to student perspectives and explained the purpose behind classroom activities. These seemingly small acts communicated the idea that student ideas mattered in their classrooms.
Autonomy can look different across CTE programs.
- In an engineering classroom, students might choose which problem to solve while working toward the same learning objective.
- In culi-nary arts, they may select ingredients or presentation styles while demonstrating identical technical competen-cies.
- Agricultural education students may select a supervised agricultural experience aligned with their personal interests and career goals.
- Business students could choose the audience or industry for a marketing campaign.
In any of these contexts, options provide students the autonomy and choice they seek, while still asking them to meet course expectations. Each of these examples provides ownership within the existing curriculum without lowering expectations. Research in motivation consistently suggests that students are more invested when they perceive their actions as self-directed rather than externally controlled.
Five small shifts can make a big difference.
Meaningful student engagement doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your classroom or teaching methods. Instead, it often grows from dozens of intentional interactions that communicate one simple message: “You matter here.”
- Explain the “why” before the “what.” Before introducing a new skill or project, spend two minutes explaining how it connects to an industry practice, workplace expectation or future career opportunity.
- Offer one meaningful choice each lesson. Allow students to choose between twoproject topics, determine the order in which they complete learning stations,select a real-world example that interests them, or decide how they demonstrate mastery.
- Normalize mistakes as part of skill development. Every skilled tradesperson, healthcare professional, entrepreneur and engineer was once a beginner. Remind students of that. Celebrate revisions, encourage thoughtful questions and model what it looks like to learn from mistakes.
- Build relationships in small, consistent ways. Greet students by name and ask how their game went this week. Follow up on a previous conversation or simply listen with genuine curiosity. These moments are brief, but their cumulative impact can shape how students experience an entire course.
- Ask students for their perspective. At the end of a lesson, consider asking questions like, What part of today’s lesson helped you learn the most? What remains confusing? How could this activity better reflect what you hope to do after graduation? What should we do differently next time?
Students won’t always have perfect answers, but that’s not the point. The point is demonstrating that their experiences and perspectives have value within your classroom. Because students are most likely to invest in learning when they feel they belong and when they believe they can succeed.
Hunter J. Carson, M.S., is a doctoral student in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication at the University of Florida.
Carla B. Jagger, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication at the University of Florida.
J.C. Bunch, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication at the University of Florida.
Jeanna Mastrodicasa, J.D., Ph.D., serves as the director of institutional assessment and assistant provost at the University of Florida.
