Hidden Keys to Student Engagement: Optimising Learning and Well-being

Dr Gordon Neufeld's NZ Events.

Don't miss hearing Dr Neufeld in person - as he makes sense of such a pressing concern.

Across every age and stage of education, one question sits at the heart of effective teaching: How do we truly engage our students in learning?

Many teachers are noticing the same worrying patterns. Curiosity is fading. Motivation is harder to awaken. Anxiety and emotional distress are rising. Behaviour is becoming more complex. At the same time, teachers are working harder than ever — often at the cost of their own well-being.

This is not limited to one age group, school, centre, or community. From early childhood through to secondary education, student engagement has become one of the most pressing challenges of our time.

Teaching longer, harder, or with more content has not solved the problem. Curriculum changes may help at times, but they rarely reach the deeper roots. Restricting digital devices may reduce distraction, but it does not necessarily restore curiosity, motivation, or a love of learning.

Dr. Gordon Neufeld argues that we cannot solve a problem we do not truly understand. In this presentation, he will introduce a two-phase developmental model of student engagement that helps make sense of what is happening for today’s learners — including those who seem the hardest to reach.

Rather than offering quick fixes or surface-level strategies, this session will explore the hidden developmental conditions that allow students to become naturally engaged, curious, resilient, and ready to learn.

For teachers, leaders, and those who support children and young people, this presentation offers a hopeful and deeply practical way forward. When we understand what drives engagement, we are better able to create classrooms and learning environments where students can flourish — and where teachers can rediscover confidence, purpose, and professional fulfilment.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Make sense of what is happening for today’s students across early childhood, primary, and secondary settings.
Understand why the most powerful keys to engagement are often “hidden” — and why they need to work beneath the surface rather than through pressure or persuasion.
Learn what to do when the usual approaches to student engagement are no longer working.
Discover the difference between universal keys to engagement and the keys that only work when a student’s development is unfolding as it should.
Explore the essential role of relationship, emotional safety, and play in awakening engagement.
Understand the developmental roots of curiosity, flexible thinking, resilience, learning from mistakes, and emotional well-being.

Relevant for all those interested in children, teenagers and education e.g teachers, early childhood, school counsellors, RTLB's Senco's. Attendance Officers, Youth workers, Social Workers in Schools.

Join us for this rare opportunity to hear Dr Neufeld in person.

This full day course includes morning and afternoon teas and lunch.

Enquire at neufeldaotearoa@gmail.com for discount code for Christchurch two day package deal including Hidden Keys to Student Engagement and Neufeld Aotearoa Conference 2026 ( Tuesday 8 September)

Contact the host of Hidden Keys to Student Engagement - Dr Gordon Neufeld