Taking a playful approach to schoolwork: Associations with schoolwork engagement, school satisfaction, and school belonging

Abstract

The present study investigates how students in lower secondary education may playfully design their schoolwork with fun and competition (i.e., playful study design) to shape their schoolwork engagement, school satisfaction and school belonging, and whether school boredom moderates these effects. We hypothesize that using fun and challenge fosters school satisfaction and school belonging through increased engagement in schoolwork, and that these associations are stronger on days when school boredom is high. One-hundred Norwegian lower secondary school students participated in a daily diary study across ten school days. Results from multilevel analyses show that daily designing fun was positively associated with daily schoolwork engagement and indirectly associated with daily school satisfaction and daily school belonging. Similarly, daily designing competition was positively associated with daily schoolwork engagement and indirectly associated with daily school satisfaction (but not school belonging). School boredom moderated the association between designing fun (but not designing competition) and schoolwork engagement. The indirect association between designing fun and school satisfaction through schoolwork engagement was strongest on days when students reported high school boredom. Conversely, the indirect association between designing competition and school satisfaction through schoolwork engagement was strongest on days when students reported low school boredom. We discuss theoretical contributions and practical implications of the findings.