Uncovering the dynamics of academic engagement and emotions across ability levels: The role of crossover processes and real-time interactions with peers and teachers

Academic engagement and emotions have consistently been related to important student outcomes such as higher academic achievement and better socio-emotional adjustment (Skinner et al., 2008). In particular for high-ability students, promoting engagement has been suggested to be key in order to avoid underachievement and let these students excel and flourish (Siegle & McCoach, 2005; Snyder & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2015). According to theoretical and empirical work, students’ engagement and emotions are malleable and formed within the students’ social learning context (Fredricks et al., 2004). As such, multiple theoretical models emphasize the importance of interactions with both teachers and peers in shaping students’ engagement and emotions in school for both average- and high-ability students (e.g., Siegle et al., 2017; Skinner & Pitzer, 2012). This project focuses on the affective quality of individual teacher-student interactions and the engagement and emotions of students’ teacher and peers as predictors of student academic engagement and emotions. It has been well established that close relationships with teachers promote students’ engagement, whereas conflictive relationships undermine their engagement (e.g., Roorda et al., 2017; Verschueren & Koomen, 2012). However, previous studies mainly relied on trait-like measures to assess general teacher-student relationships and student engagement and therefore do not capture the quality of teacher-student interactions and student engagement in real-life classroom contexts. Moreover, research on academic engagement within its naturally occurring context is scarce in general student populations and lacking completely among high-ability students. In addition, concerning the engagement and emotions of teachers and peers, crossover theory (Härtel & Page, 2009) suggests that students’ emotions and engagement in class are directly or indirectly elicited by the emotions and engagement of others in the same environment. As such, the engagement and emotions of teachers and peers in class are likely transmitted to students and contribute to students’ engagement in school. Yet, only few studies examined interrelations of emotions or engagement between teachers and students in real-life classrooms, and research on emotional crossover between peers is to our knowledge nonexistent. This doctoral project aims to address these gaps by using data from two studies. First, data is used from the MOMENT study in which 440 11th and 12th Grade students reported on their own and their teachers’ emotions and engagement during math classes using experience sampling methodology. Second, data is used from the TALENT study in which 3,409 Flemish students participated in peer nominations and reported on their general emotions and engagement in a survey throughout Grades 7 and 8. Using data from the MOMENT study, this project aims to examine whether situational variations in student engagement and emotions relate to (1) variations in perceived teacher support or conflict, (2) variations in perceived teacher engagement and (3) variations in peer emotions. Further, we aim to examine whether (4) these relations are similar across ability levels. Finally, using data from the TALENT study, we aim to (5) complement the in situ examination of crossover effects of peer emotions by using social network analysis to examine whether students’ emotions are influenced by their classroom friends’ emotions.