Subject and time specificity of students' cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement at school

This study aimed to better understand the extent of subject specificity in students' engagement across three engagement subdimensions (emotional, behavioral, and cognitive) and over time. We assessed students' engagement in two school subjects (math and German as the language of instruction) at the beginning and end of the first year of upper secondary school (N = 1324). The results of our longitudinal bifactorial modeling showed that the subdimensions had both subject-specific and subject-independent aspects. Emotional engagement was the most subject-specific, and behavioral engagement was the most subject-independent. Subject specificity was higher for math than German and increased over the school year. Furthermore, students' self-concept, self-efficacy beliefs, interest, and grades were more related to subject-specific than subject-independent aspects, especially in math. Our results suggest that it is essential to consider the increasing subject specificity and the variability in subject specificity across dimensions when developing strategies to strengthen students' engagement.

Educational Relevance

Subject-specific engagement is one of the critical factors influencing students' learning and achievement. However, little is known about how subject-specific and how general students' engagement is when they engage in a particular subject. Our study showed that subject specificity is quite high and increases over time. Our results thus encourage teachers to foster students' subject-specific engagement over and above their general tendency to engage at school – and to increase such efforts as students grow older. Given the varying subject specificity of different engagement dimensions, teachers should know that emotional engagement may tip the scales in subject-specific interventions. Separating subject-specific and subject-independent aspects of engagement might support schools in designing more targeted interventions to tackle students' disengagement. It can help to develop strategies that will lead students to become more engaged in individual subjects.