Characterizing a middle school student's engagement in a mathematics class

Abstract

This study builds on previous work that investigates the nature of engagement as it occurs ‘in the moment’ by using the concept of engagement structures (Goldin, Epstein, Schorr and Warner, 2011). In this paper, we report on a young male student, Eric, who called out an answer in response to a question posed by the teacher. He noted that he wanted to impress the others in the class. His solution was immediately challenged by his peers, whereupon, he became defensive and withdrew from the discussion. We attempt to characterize this shift in engagement using the theoretical concept of engagement structures as a way to explain his reactions.