Are Schools Alienating Digitally Engaged Students? Longitudinal Relations between Digital Engagement and School Engagement

Abstract

This article examined digital learning engagement as the out-of-school learning component that reflects informally emerging socio-digital participation. The gap hypothesis proposes that students who prefer learning with digital technologies outside of school are less engaged in traditional school. This hypothesis was approached from the framework of connected learning, referring to the process of connecting self-regulated and interest-driven learning across formal and informal contexts. We tested this hypothesis with longitudinal data. It was of interest how digital engagement, operationalized as a general digital learning preference, wish for digital schoolwork, and their interaction, is related to traditional school engagement. This was examined both cross-sectionally in three time points and longitudinally across three years. The participants were 1,705 (43.7% female) 7th-9th graders (13-15 years old) from 27 schools in Helsinki, Finland. We explored the structure of correlations between latent constructs at each time point separately, and finally, to evaluate longitudinal relations between digital engagement and school engagement we specified latent cross-lagged panel models. The results indicate that students holding a stronger general digital learning preference experienced higher schoolwork engagement, both contemporaneously and over time, indicating successful connected learning. However, the results also showed support for the gap hypothesis: Students who preferred digital learning but did not have the chance to digitally engage at school, experienced a decrease in school engagement over time. The article shows that there is a need to examine the reciprocal interactive processes between the learners and their social ecologies inside and outside school more closely.

Bringing maker practices to school: tracing discursive and materially mediated aspects of student teams’ collaborative making processes

“…Usually, students have their most intensive experiences with the creative use of digital technologies outside of schools (Ito, Gutiérrez, Livingstone, Penuel, Rhodes, Salen, Schor, Sefton-Green and Watkins 2013), and longitudinal investigations reveal technology-oriented students become increasingly alienated and disengaged at school (Hietajärvi, Lonka, Hakkarainen, Alho and Salmela-Aro 2020). Our investigation indicates, however, that schools implementing maker-centered pedagogies provide students with more intensive structured support for learning creative practices of technology use than they encounter in informal contexts (Forsström, Korhonen, Tiippana, Sormunen, Juuti, Seitamaa-Hakkarainen, Lavonen and Hakkarainen, submitted).…”

Adolescent students’ digital engagement and achievement goal orientation profiles

“…The current study was conducted in Finland, where students generally have good access to digital technologies (OECD, 2015); however, the educational system still struggles to provide specific and efficient technology-mediated learning programs (Hakkarainen, 2009;Halonen et al, 2016). Moreover, several students engage in out-of-school educational activities via digital media and some want their schoolwork to include more technologymediated learning opportunities (Hietajärvi et al, 2020). Thus, a gap might exist between students' out-of-school digital learning preferences and traditional schooling (Halonen et al, 2016), possibly leading to lower engagement in school (Hietajärvi et al, 2020).…”

“…Moreover, several students engage in out-of-school educational activities via digital media and some want their schoolwork to include more technologymediated learning opportunities (Hietajärvi et al, 2020). Thus, a gap might exist between students' out-of-school digital learning preferences and traditional schooling (Halonen et al, 2016), possibly leading to lower engagement in school (Hietajärvi et al, 2020). Yet adolescents primarily use digital media for socializing with peers (Li et al, 2017), and digital tools can distract them from learning.…”

Lessons learned on student engagement from the nature of pervasive socio‐digital interests and related network participation of adolescents

“…Latest research has indeed found positive connections between the knowledge‐oriented interests and school engagement, but also between high amounts of pastime action gaming and school‐related cynicism (Hietajärvi et al, 2019). The relations between social networking orientation and higher school burnout as well as lower school engagement were also notable (Hietajärvi et al, 2020).…”

“…On the one hand, teachers have more and more difficulties in engaging their students with their traditional teacher‐centred and reproductive instructional practices (Entwistle & Ramsden, 2015). On the other hand, active socio‐digital participators appear to feel alienated at school, especially related to lack of social and active participation (Hakkarainen, Hietajärvi, Alho, Lonka, & Salmela‐Aro, 2015; Hietajärvi, Lonka, Hakkarainen, Alho, & Salmela‐Aro, 2020).…”