It is essential to keep students academically engaged by making the learning meaningful, relevant, and enjoyable. Simply teaching to the academic standards and expecting the information to be retained, at least until an exam, does little to create academic interest and promote learning. Students are most engaged when they perceive their work to be challenging and in balance with their skills, the content is relevant, and they feel they have some control over the learning environment (Shernoff et al., 2003).

When students see little value in what they are expected to learn, they become less motivated to engage in the learning experience (Legault et al., 2006). Conversely, a substantial body of research supports the conclusion that students expend more effort and achieve more when they view a lesson as personally relevant or important (Jang, 2008; Miller & Brickman, 2004).

A student's personal interest can provide a useful foundation from which to build interest in a subject, engage their critical thinking skills and help to grasp concepts that might otherwise be difficult for them to understand. For instance, many students are interested in video games. A math teacher could use this information to discuss how mathematical formulas are used in programming; a music teacher can design a lesson around how the music in the games adds excitement and emotion; and a history teacher can use a popular game as an introduction to an actual event. In this way a teacher can tap into a student's personal interests and then expand it with new information that the student will find useful. By doing this, the teacher has enabled the student to use his or her own higher-order, critical thinking skills which are essential to launch a child on an academically successful learning path towards lifelong learning.