In the past it has been the custom to measure and define educational engagement as a matter of static behavior, with metrics such as assignment turn-in rates, frequency of participation or even attendance figures being taken as the whole of it. But the prevailing neuro-pedagogical view is that any engagement of an authentic and deep nature cannot be separated from the ego development and ongoing psychological growth of the learner. The purpose of this wide-ranging empirical study is to put an end to the behaviourist paradigm in a quantitative and qualitative fashion by examining the structural ties between multidimensional typologies of engagement (agentic, cognitive, emotional, behavioural) and the various stages of psychological maturation, for which we have employed self-determination and self-authorship frameworks.
It is our contention, and an empirically sound one at that, that curriculum architects and policymakers would do well to abandon pedagogies of compliance in favour of ecosystems that are transformative and provide the necessary psychological scaffolding. This research makes the case for seeing educational engagement as the outward evidence of substantial internal growth rather than a transactional decision on the part of the student.