Sense of Competence and Optimism as Resources to Promote Academic Engagement

This study investigated what kinds of studying profiles could be identified in terms of achievement strategies (optimism, task avoidance) and experienced challenge-competence balance, and whether such profiles are related to students’ academic engagement or disengagement. The participants (n=785) were Finnish undergraduate students from University of Helsinki (teacher education, chemistry, theology, law) and Aalto university (engineering). Three profiles were identified by K-means cluster analysis: pessimistic, bored and optimistic. Pessimistic expressed the highest task avoidance and lowest optimism and competence. Optimistic reported the lowest task avoidance and highest optimism and competence. Bored experienced the lowest challenge as compared to both pessimistic and optimistic. ANOVAs revealed that optimistic expressed the highest engagement, whereas pessimistic were the most disengaged. Bored students’ problem appeared to be lack of interest rather than any other study problems