Silver Linings and Storm Clouds: Divergent Profiles of Student Momentary Engagement Emerge in Response to the Same Task

Previous research has demonstrated that student motivation and engagement can take different forms across a variety of tasks at school or college. However, no research has yet examined the forms of student momentary engagement that emerge in response to a single task. Adolescent students (N = 196) f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of educational psychology Vol. 113; no. 6; pp. 1192 - 1207
Main Authors Symonds, Jennifer E, Schreiber, James B, Torsney, Benjamin M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published American Psychological Association 01.08.2021
Subjects
Class Activities
Foreign Countries
Influences
Learner Engagement
Profiles
Psychological Patterns
Secondary School Students
Student Behavior
Student Characteristics
Student Motivation
Student Reaction
Ireland (Dublin)
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Summary:Previous research has demonstrated that student motivation and engagement can take different forms across a variety of tasks at school or college. However, no research has yet examined the forms of student momentary engagement that emerge in response to a single task. Adolescent students (N = 196) from two low-income secondary schools in Dublin, Ireland were given the same English grammar task to complete in a 10-min period. We used systematic observation and posttask self-report measures to collect data on momentary cognition, emotion, motivation, and behavior. Using latent profile analysis, we discovered seven main forms of momentary (dis)engagement: fully engaged, attentive but amotivated, attentive but disinterested, attentive but disaffected, distracted but motivated, disengaged, and deeply disengaged. Gender, ethnicity, academic self-efficacy, peer support, and classmate cognitive engagement were notable predictors of group membership. The results should be useful to educators wanting to understand why students in their classrooms have a variety of responses to the same task.
ISSN:0022-0663
DOI:10.1037/edu0000605