What do you feel is the most important element in student engagement?

I struggle with engagement as it so often means finding activities to engage students, when my argument is that it is the reverse – as we come to learn things we become engaged. If I was a good teacher and you know nothing about golf, canasta, or cricket, then I would start by teaching you some basic skills (which would not seem necessarily authentic, engaging, or worthwhile to your life) but as you are starting to master some of these skills my aim would be then use this mastery to engage you in reinvesting in learning. Hence I have little time for the notions that activities need to be engaging, authentic, real world etc. SO, that is the most important element in student engagement – more than not it is an outcome of the learning process” (John Hattie, personal communication, January 23, 2016).