Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioral Engagement Strategies That Work

Recent research highlights a growing concern: Attention spans are shrinking. Across all age groups, maintaining focus and engaging with others is becoming more difficult. David Brooks notes that even adults are struggling with the habit of actively tracking a speaker. In classrooms, teachers face the challenge of capturing students’ attention for even a fraction of the time they used to.

Studies identify three key dimensions of engagement: behavioral, cognitive, and emotional. Behavioral engagement is seen in students following directions, while cognitive engagement reflects their investment in learning and willingness to tackle challenges. Emotional engagement relates to students’ positive feelings toward a topic and their sense of belonging. These dimensions are interconnected and critical in fostering deeper learning.

For example, in a virtual discussion, behavioral engagement might be shown by a student writing a post, cognitive engagement through the depth of their ideas, and emotional engagement by their enthusiasm for the topic. Teachers can integrate these dimensions of engagement to overcome the attention span deficit and help students feel more engaged in their learning. 

Integrating the Dimensions of Engagement

To maximize student learning, new research suggests mixing engagement strategies within short intervals, such as shifting between direct instruction and collaboration with peers every three to six minutes. In addition, research suggests that combining a mix of low-challenge and high-challenge tasks every three to six minutes boosts academic achievement and replenishes energy to sustain attention and reengage in more complex tasks. 

How do we then combine direct instruction and collaboration while rotating between complex and low complex tasks while maintaining high engagement?  Here are some approaches you can take in class today.

Quick wins: Start lessons with brief, explicit instruction and guided practice before moving into larger group activities. This ensures that students grasp key concepts early, with a strong “we do” approach that incorporates modeling and questioning. For example, a teacher decides to break down a lesson into several parts rather than one longer lesson and begin by demonstrating how to compare fractions with common denominators. After three minutes, the teacher asks students to identify fractions with common denominators. This is repeated with additional intervals across the lesson.  

Integrate SEL into content: Instead of isolating social and emotional learning, weave executive functioning strategies into academic lessons. This could involve a brief interval where students reflect on how they manage their time or attention within a math or science lesson, promoting both self-regulation and content mastery. For example, after students have engaged in a few intervals related to food chains and food webs, they reflect on the three dimensions of engagement—e.g., Cognitive: What did I learn about food chains and energy pyramids? Emotional: How confident do I feel in explaining the flow of energy in an ecosystem? Behavioral: What steps did I take to progress to this point in the lesson or unit?

Small, structured collaboration: Begin group work in short, structured bursts—just one to four minutes. As students build confidence and deepen their understanding, gradually extend the time. This keeps the cognitive load manageable and aligns the duration of group work with the difficulty of the task. For instance, after a social studies teacher presents key figures in the Civil Rights Movement, students spend three minutes working in pairs, sharing their personal reflections on fairness and comparing them with what they’ve learned about historical struggles for equality.

Low-Challenge/High-Engagement Activities 

Teachers should infuse a few three- to six-minute activities that are low challenge and high engagement for students into each lesson. These should not take much time to create and should be designed to replenish student attention by integrating cognitive, emotional, and behavioral approaches to engagement. These could be strategies to consolidate previous learning. 

Question generation: Have students create questions on the topic for younger students. For example, you could ask ninth-grade world history students to create questions for students in third and sixth grade on this same topic. Instead of answering questions, students create them! In pairs or small groups, they have three minutes to write questions based on the lesson content. After the time is up, they trade questions with another group and try to answer each other’s questions. The teacher may ask them why those questions are so important for younger students to know.

Trivia/quiz activity: Have students participate in a short quiz, such as answering questions about key events from a history lesson, while competing as part of an ongoing trivia game that lasts several days or weeks. To do this, consider designing  questions that blend knowledge with fun by incorporating interesting facts, pop culture references, or challenges. Make sure to keep the format light and competitive, providing multiple-choice or timed responses to add excitement and encourage participation.

Two truths and a lie:  Students work in pairs or small groups to come up with two true statements and one false statement about a topic they’ve learned from the past several units (e.g., historical facts, scientific theories, literary events). They present their three statements to another group, who has to guess which one is the lie.

Quick round questions: The teacher asks fast-paced questions related to the topic (e.g., vocabulary definitions, dates of key events, formulas) while students respond by raising their hand, calling out, or writing their answer on a small whiteboard. Keep the pace lively and engaging, and encourage students to celebrate correct answers with a quick clap or cheer.

Crossword puzzle: Students engage in a part of a crossword puzzle and repeatedly work to solve it over several days. 

Bingo/search: Give students a list of things they need to find (e.g., “Find someone who can explain photosynthesis,” “Find someone who knows the capital of Luxembourg,” “Find someone who can give an example of a metaphor”). They have three to five minutes to walk around the room and ask classmates to fill in the blanks.

Mind maps: Students are given three minutes to create a mind map of key concepts from the lesson, starting with one central idea and branching out to related terms or ideas. Afterward, they can compare their mind maps with those of a partner or small group to see if they captured the same key points.

ABC game: The teacher starts with a vocabulary word from the current lesson, and students must quickly come up with a related word that begins with the last letter of the previous word (e.g., Ecosystem → Mammal → Leaf → Food chain). The chain continues for three minutes, with students taking turns contributing.