How the dynamics of engagement explain the momentum of achievement and the inertia of disengagement: A complex systems theory approach

Abstract

Engagement can be understood as a complex dynamic system that unfolds over time and interacts within the student, school, and environment. Most of the research on the dynamics of engagement comes from classroom settings and it is so far inconclusive how and why engagement and disengagement evolve over time. Using person-centered methods, sequence, transition, and covariate analysis, we examined a large dataset of 18 consecutive courses of 245 students over a full program. We identified three engagement states (active, average, and disengaged), as well as three distinct longitudinal engagement trajectories (engaged, fluctuating, and mostly disengaged). Taken together, our results showed that engagement trajectories are rather stable over time conforming to the universal dynamics of complex systems. Engaged students were driven by course materials, their achievement, and their previous engaged states (momentum). Most importantly, our results offer a novel theoretical grounding for the understanding of disengagement which has so far remained unexplained. According to our results, disengagement follows the dynamics of a complex system where stability does not require a hard-wired causal mechanism but rather, it is an attractor state that pulls the system to settle in (inertia). Thus, disengagement becomes a hard to change equilibrium state for those students t (or a stuck state).