How to spark the ' amazing flywheel of learning' in disengaged students

After years of researching how to help kids learn better and feel better, journalist Jenny Anderson and academic Dr Rebecca Winthrop present their findings in the new book The Disengaged Teen.

Thousands of American teens told a recent study they were bored at school and at the same time stressed out by it.

This is a "remarkable feat," Anderson told RNZ's Afternoons.

A survey of about 66,000 students found that young people were very aware that competition was high in the university and job market, Anderson said.

"A remarkable share of kids don't really see the point of what they're doing in school.

"They see the competition, they know the stakes are harder. It's harder to get into university, harder to get jobs, and so they see that, so they're kind of bored in school, but also super stressed out that if they don't do well at this game, that they don't even really want to be playing, things are going to be bad for them."

The research found students learn in four ways, or modes: passenger, achiever, resistor and explorer.

Passenger mode students are coasting, she said.

"They race through their homework, they often say they're bored, it's stupid, they don't care."

In achiever mode, students try to get a gold star in everything put in front of them.

"They are often very fragile learners, and so we just have to help make those kids a little bit more resilient. And they are developing some really good skills that when they're in that achiever mode."

Students in resistor mode are often dubbed the 'problem children', she said. There is invariably a problem that needs to be uncovered in this mode.

"These are the kids who resist, they withdraw and they act out."

But it's in explorer mode where the desire to learn is ignited - and teenagers don't spend enough time here.

Students in Years 10 and 11 should not be told what they need to do to get into college, she explained, but have the chance to lean into what excites them.

This can unleash what Anderson called an "amazing flywheel of learning".

"They will dig in; they will want to learn more. They will succeed. They will then do that again, if that's in something they care about deeply, that can spill over to their academics, but that is what you want them to feel, that internal drive, that internal spark and motivation."

International research shows giving students more choice in the classroom is like the "Shangri La of good effects," she said.

"Kids perform better, they graduate at higher rates. They are more pro-social, they report being happier. They get better grades across the board."