Promoting persistence: Peer group influences on students’ re-engagement following academic problems and setbacks

Abstract

This study examined the role that peer groups play in shaping students’ academic re-engagement across their first year in middle school and whether influences are stronger from peers with whom students remained affiliated over time. Data were collected on an entire cohort of 366 sixth graders (48% female) in a small town. Students reported on their behavioral re-engagement—or persistence following academic problems or failure, on the extent to which they experienced academic setbacks, and on their teachers’ involvement. Teachers rated students’ academic engagement. Peer groups were identified in fall and spring using socio-cognitive mapping, distinguishing fluid peers (i.e., group members in fall only) and stable peers (i.e., members in both fall and spring). Peer group profiles of re-engagement were calculated for fluid peers, stable peers, and both combined. Results showed that the overall peer group profiles of re-engagement in fall did not predict changes in students’ re-engagement over the school year when unstable members were included. However, when modeled separately, stable peer group profiles of re-engagement were a positive predictor of changes in students’ own re-engagement, whereas profiles of fluid peers’ re-engagement were not. The findings suggest that peer group members with whom students maintain consistent group affiliations across the year play a central role in supporting students’ re-engagement when overcoming academic difficulties.

Abrupt Transformation in Pedagogy: How Do Students Engage Academically in the Face-to-Face Online Learning Environment?

“…This demonstrates that they have not encountered any substantial obstacles in their academic pursuits. The findings of the Vollet & Kindermann (2020) study, which suggest that persistence or re-engagement can overcome academic problems, corroborate this viewpoint. This viewpoint is also natural because when students do not experience difficulties, the time allotted to each assignment does not necessarily need to be maximized.…”

“…It turned out that the curious and enthusiastic students lacked the necessary strength to make them robust, let alone to deal with challenging situations when they arrived. Curiousness is a result of the requirement of continuously accompanying a commitment oriented toward motivations and aims (Vollet & Kindermann, 2020). Then there are variations in the role of interest vs. persistence in promoting student academic engagement in the learning process.…”

“…The intention to re-engage is a predictor of student persistence (Kimbark, et al, 2017). Persistence is a representation of re-engagement (Vollet & Kindermann, 2020). It is also defined as long-term efforts to overcome obstacles (Collie, et al, 2017).…”

“…Data collection surveys gather information from Indonesian students about their engagement in online learning, which includes Academic Engagement or AcE (Appleton, Christenson, Kim, & Reschly, 2006;Henrie, Halverson, & Graham, 2015), Affective Engagement or AfE (Piñeiro, et al, 2019), and Cognitive Engagement or CE (Fredricks & McColskey, 2012). The instruments used for the interplay variable is (1) the self-awareness model, which adapts the Self-Awareness Outcomes Questionnaire (SAOQ) by Sutton (2016) with the constructs, (a) internal reflection and (b) self-concept; (2) the self-orientation model with the constructs, (a) personal motives and (b) mindfulness interventions (Liu, Fu, et al, 2018;Olton-Weber, et al, 2020); (3) the felt obligation model with the constructs, (a) intention to stay, (b) recovery performance, and (c) affective commitment (Malhotra, et al, 2020); and (4) the persistence model with the constructs, (a) personal commitment, (b) resilience, and (c) adaptability (Vollet & Kindermann, 2020).…”

Introduction to the special section on the development of motivational resilience in school

“…The fifth empirical paper focuses on an underappreciated social partner in research on academic motivation and engagement, namely, students’ peers (Kindermann, 2016; Vollet, Kindermann, & Skinner, 2017). Using data from fall and spring of the first year of middle school (grade 6, age: 12–13), Vollet and Kindermann (2020) examine the role peer groups play in shaping changes in students’ academic re-engagement (i.e., their capacity to rebound in the face of academic problems or failure) and whether such influences are stronger from peers on whom students can consistently rely. This study reminds researchers that students’ peers may have access to additional resources that individual students do not.…”