Nurturing ENGAGEMENT in Education
- Kristijan Musek Lešnik
- Nov 14, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Engagement is the felt sense of being “all in.” It appears when tasks are meaningful, just-right challenging, and invite strengths and creativity. When both teachers and kids experience it, classrooms become places of vitality, creativity, and connection.
When We Are Fully Absorbed
When we engage in activities that truly interest us — activities that demand our full presence and focus — we enter a state of deep engagement. We’ve all felt this moment: when the world around us fades away and we are completely absorbed in what we’re doing.
It could be playing a sport, painting, gardening, dancing, woodworking, reading, solving a problem, or creating something new. Whatever sparks our curiosity, challenges our skills, and holds our attention can lead to this state of complete immersion.
What Engagement Really Means
If something interests us, we focus on it. And when we focus on it, it often becomes even more interesting. Many of our interests are not “natural talents” — they grow because we give them time, attention, and persistence. Engagement doesn’t appear accidentally; it develops through repeated moments of curiosity, effort, and satisfaction that gradually pull us deeper into the experience.
Engagement reflects an active, involved approach to life — a willingness to participate fully and passionately in the things that matter to us. In its purest form, it’s known as flow — a concept described by psychologist Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
Children often experience flow while playing. We adults may feel it when we are so immersed in meaningful activity that we lose track of time — and even of ourselves. When we are in flow, our attention becomes laser-focused, and it’s almost impossible to pull us away from what we’re doing.
Flow Happens Naturally
Flow can’t be forced. It arises spontaneously when we do things we love — things that excite, challenge, and inspire us. We don’t find it in repetitive or overly simple tasks: it emerges when we face challenges that stretch our abilities just enough to keep us growing.
In flow, the activity itself is the reward. The satisfaction comes not from the final result, but from the experience of doing. That’s why engaging activities feel meaningful even without external praise or recognition.
The more time we spend in these experiences of full engagement, the richer and more satisfying our lives become. For children, opportunities for deep engagement are especially important — they help them develop skills, competence, focus, and emotional intelligence.
Engagement in Preschool and School
When the things we have to do feel boring or meaningless, we tend to withdraw into apathy or distraction — or look for excitement elsewhere. Tasks that are too simple are natural enemies of engagement. Overly rigid or repetitive activities also rarely invite full attention. What children and young people need are opportunities to experience that energizing feeling of flow — of being completely in it. To nurture this engagement in preschool and school, they need tasks that are challenging and stimulating — activities that evoke energy, commitment, and absorption.
Many children today find traditional school routines slow or uninspiring because they are growing up in a world of constant digital stimulation, with instant feedback, notifications, and “likes.” Helping them overcome apathy is one of the great challenges of modern education — but not an impossible one.
Children engage deeply when they are interested, inspired, and emotionally involved. Games, creative projects, and problem-solving activities can all awaken curiosity and persistence. The key is to offer experiences that are:
Challenging but achievable
Emotionally rewarding
Open enough to allow creativity and imagination
The Contagious Power of Engagement
The key to children’s engagement in schools and preschools is the engagement of the adults around them. Just like joy, engagement is contagious. Every teacher has experienced moments of complete absorption — being so involved in a lesson, project, or creative process that time seems to disappear. And when that happens, students feel it too. Enthusiasm spreads. Curiosity multiplies. Engagement radiates from one person to another — just as it's absence does. If children sense apathy in their teachers, they will mirror it. If they feel excitement and flow, they will reflect that too. It's as simple as that.
In Essence
Engagement — that deep, joyful absorption in what we do — is one of the purest forms of happiness and learning. When both teachers and students experience it, classrooms become places of vitality, creativity, and connection. So in the end, the best way to teach engagement is to live it.
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© dr. Kristijan Musek Lešnik & GrowHumans.
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