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Handbook of Research on Student Engagement
Abstract
Within the emerging field of research on student engagement, there exists a wide variety of work in terms of definitions, constructs, and methodologies. In this chapter, we argue for the importance of “finding the humanity in the data,” understanding and investigating student engagement and disengagement as a function of the perceptions of students about their experiences in the learning environment. After setting out a conceptualization of engagement, we examine data from the High School Survey of Student Engagement (HSSSE), a self-report survey containing both multiple-option and open-response questions. Our analysis is focused on the words and school experiences of students as a way of understanding levels and dimensions of student engagement in school. Using examples from the field, we describe ways in which schools use student perception data to understand and strengthen student engagement. We conclude by setting out challenges for research, policy, and practice in the field of student engagement.
... The ability to recognize when a student is engaged, or when he or she has achieved a state of flow (Shernoff, Csikszentmihalyi, Schneider, & Shernoff, 2003), can take time to develop because it depends not only on an instructor's observational skills but also on his or her ability to build relationships with students (Klem & Connell, 2004;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). The tasks of recognizing and monitoring engagement, thus, can prove especially challenging for student and preservice teachers. ...
... Cognitive engagement is related to investment in learning, goal-setting, and self-regulation; examples include problem-solving, seeking out challenges, and the development of expertise (Appleton et al., 2008;J. A. Fredricks et al., 2004;Munns & Woodward, 2006;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). Behavioral engagement is related to participation and involvement; the concept includes observable behaviors such as attendance, task completion, and voluntary, active classroom participation (J. A. Fredricks et al., 2004;Munns & Woodward, 2006;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). ...
... A. Fredricks et al., 2004;Munns & Woodward, 2006;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). Behavioral engagement is related to participation and involvement; the concept includes observable behaviors such as attendance, task completion, and voluntary, active classroom participation (J. A. Fredricks et al., 2004;Munns & Woodward, 2006;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). Emotional engagement is related to the affective experiences of students; it can be characterized by reactions such as interest, boredom, happiness, or anxiety and by feelings of belonging or connectedness in the learning setting (Appleton et al., 2008;Klem & Connell, 2004;Munns & Woodward, 2006;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). ...
Recently, there has been a growing push to explore the potential of non-cognitive factors in helping students reach their fullest potential. Engagement, one predictor of student achievement , is such a factor. Because the conditions under which engagement is elicited may vary, EngageMe, a visualization tool whose purpose is to assist instructors' efforts to understanding student engagement in the learning process, has been developed. The application enhances traditional observation methods by utilizing electrodermal activity, a physiological measure, as a primary indicator. An iterative, participatory design process was used to create prototypes of the EngageMe interface that, according to instructors, addresses their desires to understand how effectively they are connecting with their students and how their pedagogical strategies can be modified to meet the individual needs of a diverse student population. The results of this design process and implications for future development are discussed.
... Defining student engagement Student engagement is a broad construct that researchers have studied through three primary domains: cognitive, emotional and behavioral engagement (Cooper, 2014;Fredricks et al., 2004;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). These domains highlight the complexity of student engagement and encourage specificity in the instruments and measures used to study student engagement. ...
... These domains highlight the complexity of student engagement and encourage specificity in the instruments and measures used to study student engagement. Cognitive engagement is focused on the student's internal investment in the learning process, which incorporates the inner psychological qualities of the students or their nonvisible traits that promote effort in learning, understanding, and mastering the knowledge or skills that are promoted in their academic work (Cooper, 2014;Friedricks et al, 2004;Shernoff, 2013;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). Similarly, the cognitive engagement domain is selected when investigating the investment required, by the student, in understanding and mastering the knowledge and skills explicitly taught in schools (Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). ...
... Cognitive engagement is focused on the student's internal investment in the learning process, which incorporates the inner psychological qualities of the students or their nonvisible traits that promote effort in learning, understanding, and mastering the knowledge or skills that are promoted in their academic work (Cooper, 2014;Friedricks et al, 2004;Shernoff, 2013;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). Similarly, the cognitive engagement domain is selected when investigating the investment required, by the student, in understanding and mastering the knowledge and skills explicitly taught in schools (Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). This lens is important for understanding how a student's psychological motivations are associated with student engagement. ...
Recent theoretical conceptualizations of student engagement have raised questions about how to measure student engagement and how engagement varies not only across schools, but also within school and within classrooms. The authors build on existing research on student behavioral engagement and extend this research to emphasize a continuum of disengagement, active engagement, and passive engagement. They review common approaches to measuring engagement and highlight areas where new theoretical conceptualizations of engagement require new approaches to measurement. The authors analyze how student behavioral engagement changed depending on the context and demonstrate the need of a finer scale of engagement. They find there was not a uniform association of higher behavioral engagement and student interaction with peers, but it was the interaction with other students and the teacher that was predictive of increased engagement. Their work suggests that disaggregating behavioral engagement into disengagement, active engagement, and passive engagement has important research and conceptual implications.
... Here, the authors assert, based on a survey of the literature, that engagement is a multidimensional meta-construct consisting of three components: behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement [34]. Cognitive engagement is related to investment in learning, goal-setting, and self-regulation; examples include problem-solving, seeking out challenges, and the development of expertise [3,34,51,71]. Behavioral engagement is related to participation and involvement; the concept includes observable behaviors such as attendance, task completion, and voluntary, active classroom participation [34,51,71]. Emotional engagement is related to the affective experiences of students; it can be characterized by reactions such as interest, boredom, happiness, or anxiety and by feelings of belonging or connectedness in the learning setting [3,39,51,71]. ...
... Cognitive engagement is related to investment in learning, goal-setting, and self-regulation; examples include problem-solving, seeking out challenges, and the development of expertise [3,34,51,71]. Behavioral engagement is related to participation and involvement; the concept includes observable behaviors such as attendance, task completion, and voluntary, active classroom participation [34,51,71]. Emotional engagement is related to the affective experiences of students; it can be characterized by reactions such as interest, boredom, happiness, or anxiety and by feelings of belonging or connectedness in the learning setting [3,39,51,71]. ...
... Behavioral engagement is related to participation and involvement; the concept includes observable behaviors such as attendance, task completion, and voluntary, active classroom participation [34,51,71]. Emotional engagement is related to the affective experiences of students; it can be characterized by reactions such as interest, boredom, happiness, or anxiety and by feelings of belonging or connectedness in the learning setting [3,39,51,71]. A rigorous discussion of engagement, thus, requires acceptance of the multifaceted nature of engagement, as well as an acknowledgment that what engagement "looks like" for any particular individual may change in response to a variety of internal or external factors. ...
Recently, there has been a growing push to explore the potential of noncognitive
factors in helping students reach their fullest potential. Engagement, one
predictor of student achievement, is such a factor. Because the conditions under which
engagement is elicited may vary, EngageMe, a visualization tool whose purpose is to
assist instructors e�orts to understand student engagement in the learning process,
has been developed. The application enhances traditional observation methods by
utilizing electrodermal activity, a physiological measure, as a primary indicator. An
iterative, participatory design process was used to create prototypes of the EngageMe
interface that allows insight into how instructors connect with their students and how
their pedagogical strategies can be modi�ed to meet the individual needs of a diverse
student population. The results of this design process and implications for future
development are discussed.
... Studies have shown that emotional engagement can predict learning outcomes and is an indicator of teaching quality (Reyes et al., 2012;Dogan, 2015;Wara et al., 2018). Cognitive engagement involves learners' allocation of mental resources to learning activities (Rotgans et al., 2018), familiarity with course content, the effectiveness of learning strategies, and persistence in pursuing effective learning, and involves learners' mental investment in learning and learning activities to master complex content (Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). Thus, higher levels of cognitive engagement are likely to be associated with better learning outcomes and can be used to predict learners' academic achievement, as well as assess teaching quality (Xiao et al., 2020). ...
... However, although this study found that the implementation of HyFlex in teachers' AI competency training increased teachers' cognitive engagement, the regression results showed no significant evidence of the effect of cognitive engagement on teachers' AI competency and satisfaction. Cognitive engagement involves learners' mental investment in learning to master complex knowledge and their use of learning or metacognitive strategies (Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). In contrast, HyFlex pedagogy stimulates learners' cognitive strategies and engagement by increasing their choice and control in learning (Heilporn et al., 2021). ...
Artificial intelligence (AI) education empowers teachers to enhance the educational process. Although conventional face-to-face or fully online training methods each have their strengths, they do not fully address challenges such as the rapid pace of AI advancements, differences in teachers’ ability to grasp AI knowledge, and the need for flexible scheduling. The hybrid-flexible (HyFlex) teaching approach integrates the benefits of both methods and offers new possibilities for AI training for teachers. However, in-depth research on the practical impacts and implementation pathways for this model in AI teacher training is limited. To address this gap, we explored three key questions: (1) how to implement HyFlex in AI teacher training; (2) teachers’ engagement and satisfaction in AI training and the corresponding learning outcomes; and (3) how engagement influences teachers’ satisfaction and AI competence. Specifically, we developed a HyFlex teacher training model aimed at enhancing teachers’ AI competence and evaluated its effectiveness in a practical application. The results indicate that (1) The flexibility of HyFlex resulted in higher teacher engagement in the AI course training process, contributing to higher learning outcomes and higher teacher attitudes towards the HyFlex model. (2) The flexibility of learning styles and times in HyFlex implementation and the reusability of AI learning materials help to accommodate teachers from different educational backgrounds. (3) Emotional engagement significantly influences training satisfaction and AI competence in AI teacher training. This study provides valuable insights for future practical applications in AI teacher training and the dissemination of the HyFlex model.
... Learning environments that promote competence, relatedness, and autonomy are more likely to support intrinsic motivation in learning. Intrinsic motivation represents the processes that drives student behaviours (Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012) and explains why a student behaves in a particular way in learning. ...
... These four approaches to student engagement (episodic engagement, flow, intrinsic motivation, and situational interest) share much in common in terms of und can be seen from the descriptions above, they are not synonymous (Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). All have shown engagement to be an inherently rewarding connection between a student and learning activity, that promotes attentiveness and involvement in learning activities, and results in beneficial outcomes for the learner. ...
Digital learning environments are increasingly prevalent in higher education. The flexible and less constrained nature of these environments, means students often need to be more autonomous in managing their own learning. This implies that students are sufficiently selfmotivated to successfully engage in autonomous learning. The concept of "student engagement" has shown promise in assisting researchers' and educators' understanding of how students' general involvement in study, and their more specific completion of learning tasks, can lead to beneficial outcomes in digital learning environments. However, student engagement has taken on multiple, diffuse definitions in higher education creating confusion about what engagement is and how best to promote it. In this paper we build on a model of engagement from organisational psychology that offers insight into task-level engagement. Established models in the area of student motivation are integrated to bring clarity to the construct at tasklevel in digital learning environments.
... engagement, twiceexceptional (2e), gifted education, assessment, disabilities, masking, early childhood longitudinal study-K S tudent engagement is a multifaceted construct that comprises three primary domains: cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, and behavioral engagement (Cooper, 2014;Fredricks et al., 2004;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). The multidimensional nature of engagement presents an interacting framework of these three domains and has been researched either as a whole or as individual components. ...
... Behavioral engagement in the classroom is frequently assessed through teachers' observations regarding student conduct in class, student participation in schoolrelated activities, and apparent student interest in academic tasks. Prior research has shown that higher levels of behavioral engagement have a positive effect on student achievement in school and eventual careers (Bridgeland et al., 2006;Datu & Buenconsejo, 2021;Fredricks et al., 2004;Olivier et al., 2020;Shernoff et al., 2003;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). Skinner et al. (2009) conceptualized behavioral engagement for all students as including effort exertion, attention/concentration, and persistence. ...
Using the ECLS-K:2011, a nationally representative dataset, we compared measures of behavioral engagement among students with four different learning profiles: students identified with learning disabilities, students identified as gifted, students identified as both gifted and having a learning disability (twice-exceptional; 2e), and general education students. Behavioral engagement focuses on conduct in class, participation in school-related activities, and interest in academic tasks. We detected differences in engagement among the four learner profiles, specifically when comparing students with disabilities to other profiles. When comparing students with disabilities and general education students to gifted and 2e students, the effect size was medium to large. The effect size between the gifted and 2e profiles was small, suggesting similar behavioral engagement. Because disabilities and giftedness can often “mask” each other, these findings suggest that recognizing how behavioral engagement manifests in each category can lead to more accurate identification of special-needs students for GT assessment.
... Thus, students attending regularly scheduled sessions, raising multiple inquiries, and contacting teachers about a variety of educational and noneducational activities are deemed behaviorally engaged in their studies (Sawatsuk et al., 2018). Because of the favorable impact of behavioral engagement on student success, a significant quantity of research has been conducted to discover the qualities of schools and classrooms that are related to behavioral engagement (Farooq et al., 2010;Wang and Holcombe, 2010;Yazzie-Mintz and McCormick, 2012;Chiu and Shih, 2020;Ain and Waheed, 2021). The "students' academic self-efficacy" refers to the students' belief in their own capacity to understand and perform the tasks assigned to them by their instructors in the class, irrespective of how challenging the activities are (Gebauer et al., 2020). ...
... There are four distinct types of motivational outcome in students considered by this study, which includes their behavioral engagement, academic selfefficacy, interest, and utility value. The behavioral engagement area involves thinking about students' behavior in the classroom, involvement in school-related events, and motivation in the educational assignment they have been assigned to do (Khan et al., 2012, Khan et al., 2019Yazzie-Mintz and McCormick, 2012;Shernoff, 2013;Maghnaoui, 2020;Kahil, 2021). Another key aspect impacting academic achievement is one's sense of self-efficacy in one's own abilities. ...
Based on the reinforcement theory of motivation, the purpose of this research was to measure the effect of school innovation climate on students’ motivational outcomes, including behavioral engagement, academic self-efficacy, interest, and utility value. Furthermore, the conditional influence of students’ attitude toward technology on the link between school innovation climate and students’ motivating outcomes has been investigated and reported. Data were gathered from the 305 entrepreneurship program students of five different universities located in Wuhan, China. In the SamrtPLS 3.3.3 program, the analysis was carried out using SEM. Results revealed that the school innovation climate has a favorable impact on improving the motivating outcomes of students. Additionally, results also provided support for moderation hypotheses that “students’ attitude toward technology” moderated the relationship between “school innovation climate” and academic self-efficacy. On the contrary, “students’ attitudes about technology,” did not appear to be a significant moderator in terms of enhancing the influence of the “school innovation atmosphere” on the students’ behavioral engagement, interest, and utility value. This study provides key policy and theoretical and practical implications as well as future research avenues for entrepreneurial school managers and education scholars.
... The authors define engagement as a construct comprised of three domains: behavioral, cognitive and emotional. This view is echoed in research by Cooper (2014) and Yazzie-Mintz and McCormick (2012). Among the three domains, behavioral engagement, or participation, remains a research priority due to the fact that (1) it is directly observable and (2) it helps improve student achievement and mitigating dropout rates (Nguyen et al., 2016). ...
The influence of seating factors, an aspect of classroom management, on student participation and learning experiences has long been a topic of research interest in EFL contexts. This quantitative study examines the students’ seating preference, the potential influence of seating zones (front, middle, back) on classroom participation level in EFL presentation classes, and the students’ overall experiences with the row-and-column seating arrangement. Forty-one second-degree English lan-guage students at the English Department, Hanoi University, reported their seating preference, reasons for their choice, perceived in-class participation level, and learning experiences (classroom interaction, comfort, and concentration). The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Half of the participants preferred the middle rows, possibly because this zone enabled them to engage in learning without the pressure of being in close proximity to the instructor. The participants had an inclination to sit in their habitual seat or near a friend. The ANOVA results suggest no statistically significant difference in the participants’ per-ceived participation as a function of their seating zone. Notably, the row layout facilitated instruc-tor-student interaction yet posed difficulty for the students to maintain quality communication with their peers, which hinders learning in a class characterized by groupwork. From an educational standpoint, these findings call for careful consideration of which seating arrangement to be em-ployed in EFL speaking classes of different natures.
... The motivation cultivated within students functions as a pivotal force, fostering their active engagement in the learning process [6]. Appleton [3] broadens this perspective by highlighting that engagement is intrinsically relational [7]; it extends beyond individual effort [8], necessitating an alignment between the individual and their environment [9].. However, Furrer et al. [10] highlighted the necessity of understanding engagement within a motivational framework, noting that engagement can evolve through cyclic interactions with contextual variables and subsequently impact academic, behavioral, and social outcomes influenced by these changes in engagement. ...
Background
Research on student engagement has garnered significant interest from educators and practitioners because of its direct impact on academic success and achievement. Engaged students tend to perform better academically and exhibit fewer undesirable study behaviors, thereby enhancing academic outcomes.
Objective
This systematic literature review consolidates research on the impact of perceived teacher support on student engagement in higher education. This study emphasizes the association between teacher support in improving students’ academic performance, motivation, and retention. Furthermore, the review explores key theoretical frameworks, such as self-determination theory and social cognitive theory, alongside methodological tools such as measurement instruments and statistical analyses. The goal is to equip psychologists and educational researchers with insights into the relevant frameworks, tools, and methods for advancing future studies within the context of higher education.
Methods
This study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology. We conducted a comprehensive search for academic studies published in English within databases such as APA PsycNet, Scopus, ERIC, EBSCOHost, ProQuest, and PubMed to identify eligible studies published between 2014 and 2024.
Results
A review of 13 selected articles revealed that both students’ personal characteristics and school environment factors mediate and moderate the relationship between perceived teacher support and student engagement. The students’ personal characteristics factors include self-efficacy, the fulfillment of psychological needs, and motivation, whereas school environment factors involve the learning environment and the quality of teacher-student and peer relationships. Our findings show a lack of studies prior to 2020, with most research conducted in China and limited contributions from Malaysia and Vietnam. The reviewed articles predominantly used cross-sectional quantitative designs and self-report questionnaires, employing statistical methods like path analysis and structural equation modeling. Theoretical frameworks on student engagement mostly followed Fredricks et al.‘s model, while teacher support theories varied, with three main patterns identified: direct influence, mediation through basic psychological needs, and social cognitive perspectives. This review emphasizes the crucial role of teacher support in enhancing student engagement in higher education and urges further exploration in this under-researched area.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this review underscores the significant role of teacher support in enhancing student engagement in higher education. It highlights key theoretical frameworks and research methodologies, offering valuable insights for future studies aimed at advancing teacher support and student engagement in this context.
... Secondly, it has been previously indicated that students perceived teacher support to be critical to them [22]. Several studies have revealed that the dimension of perceived social support, namely teacher support, has the greatest impact on students' learning engagement [10], [23], [24]. ...
The aim of this study was to analyze the mediating role of academic self-efficacy in the relationship between perceive social support and learning engagement among Chinese senior high school students. A quantitative research method was adopted, and 572 Chinese senior high school students from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China completed three self-report questionnaires. Correlation analysis revealed that senior high school students perceive social support, academic self-efficacy, and learning engagement were significantly correlated with each other. In addition, structural equation modeling analysis showed that perceive social support exerted its indirect effect on learning engagement through the mediation of academic self-efficacy. These findings have practical implication for government policymakers, education administrators, teachers, students, and parents, informing evidence-based policies, interventions, and strategies to enhance learning engagement and academic success.
... Engagement in learning involves various dimensions, including cognitive, emotional and behavioral aspects (Christenson et al., 2012;Handelsman et al., 2005). The relationship between learning motivation, cognitive engagement and acquiring new knowledge and skills is closely intertwined, as highlighted by Yazzie-Mintz and McCormick (2012). Additionally, the notion of emotional engagement emphasizes the significant role of students' emotions and feelings, including their levels of interest or boredom, within the educational environment, as discussed by Wang and Holcombe in 2010. ...
Purpose
Our study focuses on providing empirical evidence regarding the optimization of podcasting in asynchronous learning. This action research aimed to innovate the delivery of asynchronous classes using differentiated podcasts.
Design/methodology/approach
We utilized action research as the research design for the study. Participating in action research entails developing practical knowledge to improve educational practices through specific methods and critical perspectives (Sáez Bondía and Cortés Gracia, 2022). According to Burns (2007), action research involves deliberate interventions usually prompted by identified issues, mysteries or inquiries that individuals in the social setting seek to improve or change. Implementing changes to enhance individuals' actions and understanding within their context is the focus of action research (Kemmis, 2010). The study’s approach is ideal for examining new practices and gaining enhanced theoretical insights (Altrichter et al ., 2002). Engaging in action research helps enhance understanding and empowers us to impact and enhance practices through continuous reflection, exploration and action. Through this iterative process, we can continuously enhance our comprehension and make substantial strides toward fostering positive transformation.
Findings
The study findings showed an apparent rise in student regulation and engagement and remarkable enhancements in learning outcomes, as demonstrated by differences in pre-test and final exam scores. These results highlight the actual effect of specialized podcasts on self-paced inducing students' self-efficacy in learning. Our research provides valuable insights on effectively incorporating podcasts into education, offering innovations and improvement of practice among educators and institutions adapting to the ever-changing landscape of the educational environment while catering to the diverse needs of the learners. This research is pioneering research catering to the various learning styles of asynchronous learning environments.
Research limitations/implications
Although our current sample offered valuable insights, upcoming studies could gain from more extensive and more diverse participant groups to strengthen the reliability of our results and guarantee broader applicability across various demographics and contexts. Moreover, the length of our intervention may have been relatively brief, which could have limited our ability to evaluate the long-term impact of customized podcasts on learning results. Continued investigation into the long-term effects of these interventions could provide valuable insights into their effectiveness over time and help shape the creation of more lasting educational approaches.
Practical implications
Innovation in asynchronous learning differentiated teaching attuned to the diverse learning styles of the students.
Social implications
The study promotes equitable education, which eventually promotes learning outcomes of the students.
Originality/value
We created differentiated podcasts tailored to the learning styles of the students. This research is pioneering research catering to the various learning styles of asynchronous learning environments.
... A few studies (Manwaring et al., 2017;Yazzi-Mintz & Mccormick, 2012) have categorized engagement in terms of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects. Cognitive engagement emphasizes the efforts to acquire new knowledge and skills through learning by highlighting the relationship between learning motivation and cognitive engagement (Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). Emotional engagement focuses on students' emotions and feelings in the classroom environment (Wang & Holcombe, 2010). ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of e-learning systems worldwide. While much research has explored how learners' personality traits affect their acceptance of e-learning, there's a gap in understanding their readiness to continue using online platforms post-pandemic. This study aims to address this gap by developing a more comprehensive framework for examining the role of the Big -five personality traits in student engagement, satisfaction, and stickiness with e-learning platforms. Data was collected from 403 students across three Australian higher education providers and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that agreeableness and conscientiousness positively influence student engagement, while extroversion and agreeableness impact satisfaction. Furthermore, students' extrovert and conscientious personality traits influence their stickiness towards e-learning. Additionally, student engagement positively correlates with satisfaction, leading to greater stickiness towards elearning. These insights can inform the development of more user-centric e-learning designs and contribute to future research on educational technologies and sustainable user behavior.
... Higher levels of student engagement are correlated with discussion and dialogic education (e.g., when instructors encourage students to elaborate on their views rather than provide succinct answers to questions) [67], [68]. Class discussions are commonly mentioned by students as being the most satisfying aspect of their educational experience [69]. ...
In the field of online learning, the topic of engagement has drawn a lot of attention. According to research, when students engage in their own learning, they experience a variety of benefits, including greater motivation and achievement. Several metrics for gauging student engagement have been proposed in previous studies. Few, however, have been created to assess involvement in online learning contexts. The goal of this study is to create an instrument for measuring student involvement in online learning settings. A critical synthesis of the literature was carried out by categorizing and then critically reviewing the literature in order to construct and integrate the variables that could aid in successful learning outcomes, leading to the development of a framework that can guide in achieving student engagement. This study confirms earlier findings while also directing the development of a student engagement framework for online learning systems. The suggested model would bring value to literature by enhancing and improving understanding of the elements influencing student engagement in an online learning environment, resulting in active student learning.
... The cognitive outcomes consist of cognitive strategy, motor skills, intellectual skills, verbal information, and attitude. Previous research has demonstrated a significant relationship between critical and creative thinking skills and COs (Yazzie-Mintz and McCormick, 2012). The significant correlations between EI and COs have been noted (Fredricks et al., 2016). ...
This study investigated the relationships among emotional intelligence (EI), relational engagement (RE), and cognitive outcomes (COs). A survey questionnaire containing 34 statements was completed by 338 undergraduate students from the four universities of China, with responses recorded on a 7-point Likert-type scale. The relationships were examined using the partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings showed that EI influenced the COs directly and indirectly during the pandemic. In the forms of self-regulation (SR) and social skills (SS), the high levels of EI improved the COs of the students. Further, the aspects of EI, such as SR, self-awareness (SA), empathy (E), motivation (M), and SS were found to improve the RE of the students. The RE was positively correlated with the COs, indicating its potential for improving critical thinking among university students. Finally, the RE was a key mediator of the relationship between the EI and COs. It is concluded that the students with higher levels of EI and RE may achieve better COs. The implications of the research and suggestions for future studies are also discussed.
... Examples of such feelings include interest, boredom, happiness, sadness, and anxiety within learning situations. This also captures students' relationships with their classmates and instructors [32,[40][41][42][43][44]. We followed the classification of emotional engagement, as given by Renninger and Bachrach [41], which has four distinct dimensions: interest, achievement orientation, anxiety, and frustration. ...
Understanding the factors contributing to the persistence and retention of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is among the main issues of concern within STEM post-secondary education. The literature suggests that teacher self-disclosure and emotional and behavioral engagement play a significant positive role in the learning process across disciplines. Such factors may lead to improved academic achievements and retention in STEM disciplines. A variety of studies examined the relationship between teacher self-disclosure and emotional and behavioral engagement within the field of humanities, but less within the fields of STEM. This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relationship between teacher self-disclosure and emotional and behavioral engagement of 208 undergraduate students enrolled in a two-year Freshman Research Immersion program. The results showed significant relationships between different aspects of teacher self-disclosure and classroom engagement. Additionally, STEM students view that high amounts of teacher self-disclosure can be related to negative aspects of classroom engagement such as emotional engagement anxiety. The study’s significance lies in practical recommendations associated with the strategic use of instances of teacher self-disclosure while teaching STEM classes and ways to support STEM undergraduate students’ levels of classroom engagement.
... Considering the positive impact of behavioral engagement on learners' achievement [89,99], and on reducing learner dropout rates [80,103], a considerable number of studies addressed recognizing the features of classrooms that are related to behavioral engagement. Two schoollevel features, namely school size and firm rules, have an excessive deal of research on their connection with learner behavioral engagement [88]. ...
Research has proved learner engagement is a strong predictor of academic achievement, especially in the online learning environment. The lack of any reliable and valid instrument to measure this construct in the context of online education made the researchers of the current study develop and validate a potential measurement inventory to assess EFL learners' engagement in the online learning environment. For this purpose, a comprehensive review of the related literature and careful investigation of the existing instruments were carried out to find the theoretical constructs for learner engagement which led to the development of a 56-item Likert scale questionnaire. The newly developed questionnaire was piloted with 560 female and male EFL university students selected based on nonprobability convenience sampling. The results of the factor analysis indicated the reduction of items to 48 loaded on three main components, namely behavioral engagement (15 items), emotional engagement (16 items), and cognitive engagement (17 items). The results also revealed that the newly developed questionnaire enjoyed a reliability index of 0.925. The findings of the current study will undoubtedly help teaching practitioners assess EFL learners’ engagement in the online learning context and make principled decisions when it comes to learners' engagement.
... Defined by (Kuh, 2001) as 'participating in educational practices strongly associated with high levels of learning and personal development', engagement underpins students' skills development and institutional adjustment (Harper & Quaye, 2009). As education researchers increasingly recognise student engagement as a dynamic psychosocial endeavour (Kahu & Nelson, 2018;Kuh, 2001;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012), participation is evolving to encompass different settings and strategies, e.g. flipped classrooms, practice placements, informal social pursuits, and self-reflective activities. ...
As 'self-law', autonomy contributes to people's psychological health and helps secure meaning in one’s life. Within higher education, it enables students to navigate this environment and prepare for professional life, empowering them to take ownership of their learning and development goals. Autonomy is multidimensional, encompassing the local ability to regulate thoughts and behaviours, and the global ability to establish a sense of existential agency; therefore, it is vital to students’ holistic progression and attainment. Within a relational context, interpersonal relationships influence people’s ability to recognise and exercise their autonomous capacities across local and global contexts. Therefore, fostering students’ autonomy is at the heart of support services within Higher Education Institutions. Student Advisers are well placed to undertake this mission, given the range of academic, administrative, and pastoral responsibilities their role entails. In this paper we provide a taxonomy of student autonomy, arguing it is ‘becoming oneself amongst others’. Given autonomy’s relational foundations, a healthy student-adviser connection can provide an environment for students to operate in a co-directive and self-determined manner. Drawing on University College Dublin’s Student Advisory Services, we offer guidance to Student Advisers, proposing two autonomy enhancement strategies: fostering students' self-governance through facilitating intrapersonal ownership and fostering their self-direction by promoting interpersonal embeddedness.
... Siguiendo este planteamiento, se podría indicar que las competencias docentes ayudan al profesorado a mantener a los estudiantes comprometidos. En este sentido, se ha señalado que el apoyo del profesorado es clave para facilitar el compromiso del estudiante (Yazzie-Mintz y McCormick, 2012). También el trabajo de Fernández-Lasarte et al. (2019) encontró que el apoyo social percibido tiene capacidad explicativa sobre la implicación escolar, destacando el efecto del apoyo del profesorado sobre la implicación escolar del alumnado. ...
INTRODUCCIÓN. El compromiso del estudiante se ha señalado como un predictor clave en los resultados académicos incluido la finalización con éxito de la educación secundaria. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar desde la perspectiva de los equipos directivos de los centros educativos las relaciones entre la competencia del profesorado, la planificación del aula y el compromiso del estudiante. MÉTODO Los participantes en el estudio fueron 116 profesores pertenecientes a los equipos directivos y jefes de departamentos de 17 Centros de educación secundaria en Valencia (España) que respondieron a un cuestionario. Las hipótesis se prueban a través de ecuaciones estructurales. RESULTADOS. Se comprueba la relación directa entre la competencia del profesorado y el compromiso del estudiante y el efecto de mediación total de la planificación del aula entre la competencia del profesorado y el compromiso del estudiante. DISCUSIÓN. Este trabajo muestra la importancia de la planificación del aula en la relación entre la competencia del profesorado y el compromiso del estudiante, además, abre distintos caminos para la intervención en problemas de fracaso y abandono escolar.
... The students' interest in their academic assignment, which refers to the concrete behavioral acts displayed by the students to demonstrate their desire to participate in classroom activities and their will to tackle difficult material, is also a pivotal component of behavioral engagement. Research in this area sheds light on the classroom exercises that result in the student displaying concrete behavioral engagement, such as perseverance, concentration, asking questions, and participating in different class discussions (Yazzie-Mintz and McCormick, 2012;Cooper, 2014). ...
Given the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, online classes have received special attention worldwide. Since teachers have a lasting effect on the students, the teacher–student relationship is a pivotal factor in language learning classes. Students will not be engaged in class activities if they are not sufficiently challenged by them or if they do not find them interesting, especially in online classes. From this point of view, motivating, engaging, and testing techniques in online classes are highly important. The present study attempts to demonstrate a correlation between structured feedback and three types of engagement in an online class: cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement. The structured feedback, which is used at the end of each lesson lets the students express what they know, what they want to know, and what they learned. The sample of the study consists of 114 EFL third-year college students. The study's findings reveal positive and significant correlations between the three types of engagement; cognitive, behavioral, and emotional, and the use of structured feedback in online classes. In a nutshell, some academic implications and recommendations are provided.
... Low student engagement is a major cause of student dropout at both high school and tertiary levels (Quaye & Harper, 2014). In general, students' class engagement can be measured based on cognitive, emotional, and behavioural engagements (Cooper, 2014;Fredricks et al., 2004;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). Cognitive engagement refers to the extent to which students are willing to invest in learning activities, including self-regulation, the dedication to mastery learning, and the use of studying strategies. ...
Many universities have slowly moved to online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Without the physical presence of instructors, students can easily engage in cyberslacking behaviour during online classes. Hence, the purpose of this research is to examine the association of student engagement with students’ cyberslacking behaviour during online classes. Both student engagement and cyberslacking are multidimensional constructs. Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to analyse data from 194 university students using a survey method. The results reveal that psychological motivation, cognitive problem-solving, and interactions with instructors do not have a significant association with cyberslacking behaviour. On the other hand, peer collaboration, community support, and learning management are found to have different associations with different dimensions of cyberslacking behaviour. Learning management is identified as the most robust predictor of cyberslacking behaviour. This research fills the research gaps by investigating the associations of various dimensions of student engagement with different dimensions of students’ cyberslacking behaviour in the context of e-learning environments.
... A useful way of understanding such factors is by viewing them through the prism of student engagement and its constituent interrelated cognitive (what the student thinks about school), affective (what the student feels about school), and behavioural dimensions (what the student does at school) (Archambault et al., 2009;Thomas, 2019). Teachers and school staff have often found it difficult to ascertain why, or how much, their students are engaged in school (Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012) and therefore tailoring teaching practices to increase engagement has been challenging. In the absence of a structured way to frame and measure student engagement, teachers have often relied on their intuition or observations and prior experiences to inform their attempts in designing interventions to promote it (Kahu, 2013). ...
Student engagement is a pivotal contributor to academic achievement, retention, and well-being, and yet the role of teacher influence on engagement is poorly understood. This is in part due to the contextual and ‘hidden’ nature of student engagement, and as such, levels of student engagement are assumed through observable factors such as attendance and conduct. It is also due to the difficulty in mapping student engagement simultaneously with understanding the teacher practices used to influence it. This article reports on a pre-post case study in which student survey and teacher focus group data were analysed together, revealing the nature and depth of association between the practices adopted by teachers and student engagement. By comparing the change of engagement at a class or homegroup level, it was possible to identify how approaches used by teachers impacted various elements of engagement. Furthermore, it found a high correlation between teacher practices and change in student engagement at a class or homegroup level, providing the opportunity for teachers to learn what practices were effective in their specific context.
... Student engagement can be considered multidimensional-consisting of distinct, yet interrelated, capacities that when positively fostered and expressed, can create a healthy learning experience. We describe five such engagement components based on literature (Blumenfeld et al., 2005;Bowden, 2013;Bowden et al., 2019;Christenson et al., 2012;Eldegwy et al., 2018;Fredricks et al., 2004;Fried & Konza, 2013;Kahu et al., 2015;Khademi Ashkzari et al., 2018;Klem & Connell, 2004;Krause & Coates, 2008;Kuh, 2006;Mahatmya et al., 2012;National Center on Effective Secondary Schools, 1992;Nguyen et al., 2016;Reeve, 2012Reeve, , 2013Reeve & Shin, 2020;Reeve & Tseng, 2011;Schaufeli et al., 2002;Vivek et al., 2014;Wentzel, 2012;Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012): i. ...
In this article, we explore first-year students’ transition into higher education (HE), focusing on the motivational factors that enhance their engagement. We argue that Student Support Professionals (SSPs) can play a pivotal role in heightening student motivation, given the broad range of academic, administrative, and pastoral responsibilities that this role entails. Against this background, we ask two questions: Firstly, how should we understand student motivation with specific regard to its antecedents, manifestations, and consequences? Secondly, what motivation-enhancement strategies can SSPs integrate into their practice to build a productive relationship with students? Drawing on self-determination theory (SDT) insights, we provide a taxonomy of student motivation, arguing that: Motivation exists in a continuum of self-regulation, motivation is contextual, motivation is multidimensional, and motivation is causally significant. Building on this taxonomy we offer practical guidance to SSPs who are looking to catalyse students’ intrinsic motivation, identifying three specific motivational enhancement strategies, namely: Fostering competence by establishing realistic expectations between oneself and students; fostering relatedness by providing resources for holistic student engagement; and fostering autonomy by empowering students in their decision-making. We argue that central to SSPs’ ability to foster engagement is possessing a conceptual and experiential understanding of student motivation, which can heighten their ability to respond to students’ needs. SSPs should approach this process of motivation enhancement as collaborative—working with students to discover both motivational impediments and motivation-enhancing resources to better engage with their HE experience.
... The cognitive outcomes consist of cognitive strategy, motor skills, intellectual skills, verbal information, and attitude. Previous research has demonstrated a significant relationship between critical and creative thinking skills and COs (Yazzie-Mintz and McCormick, 2012). The significant correlations between EI and COs have been noted (Fredricks et al., 2016). ...
This study investigated the relationships among emotional intelligence (EI), relational engagement (RE), and cognitive outcomes (COs). A survey questionnaire containing 34 statements was completed by 338 undergraduate students from the four universities of China, with responses recorded on a 7-point Likert-type scale. The relationships were examined using the partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings showed that EI influenced the COs directly and indirectly during the pandemic. In the forms of self-regulation (SR) and social skills (SS), the high levels of EI improved the COs of the students. Further, the aspects of EI, such as SR, self-awareness (SA), empathy (E), motivation (M), and SS were found to improve the RE of the students. The RE was positively correlated with the COs, indicating its potential for improving critical thinking among university students. Finally, the RE was a key mediator of the relationship between the EI and COs. It is concluded that the students with higher levels of EI and RE may achieve better COs. The implications of the research and suggestions for future studies are also discussed.
... In terms of cognitive engagement, it refers to the learners' allocation of mental resources during learning activities, their familiarity with course content, effectiveness of their learning strategies, and their persistence of pursuing effective learning (Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). Several studies also found that students who received higher teaching quality and more effective are more willing to make adjustments to their learning strategies (Rieser et al., 2016;Thiessen & Blasius, 2008;Walker & Greene, 2009). ...
This study aimed to explore the pedagogical dimension of multichannel multimodal learning (MML) and its association with student engagement. Forty-three students from Shanghai Open University participated in the study and their behavioural, emotional, cognitive learning engagement were investigated. Although teaching in the same space, the three instructors developed different MML-integrated pedagogies and delivered different levels of MML experience (i.e., different numbers of modes and channels used and incorporated). A one-factor-three-level ANOVA with a Tukey HSD test was conducted to examine whether students’ behavioural, emotional, or cognitive learning engagement on three different levels of MML experience were different. The results showed behavioural and emotional engagement was significantly positively correlated (p = .020 and .026 respectively) to different MML-integrated pedagogies, and students’ perception of levels of MML experience was significantly correlated (p = .048) to the levels the present study identified. The present study pointed out the importance of instructors’ integrating pedagogies into MML environments. More modes and channels used and incorporated by instructors can better teaching quality by increasing learners’ behavioural and emotional engagement.
... For example, Woolley et al. (2009) examined student-teacher association in the USA and found teacher support to mediate the outcome of parental and classmate support on student behaviour. In addition, Yazzie-Mintz and McCormick (2012) reported teacher support as a significant factor in student engagement among 40,000 students across 27 states in USA. While these results are worth noting, the effects of perceived teacher/lecturer support on study engagement among tertiary students from sub-Saharan Africa have not been sufficiently explored. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between academic self-efficacy, study engagement and perceived lecturer support within a higher education setup.
Design/methodology/approach
A convenience sample of 376 respondents from a technical university in Ghana took part in the study by completing self-reported questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and partial least square-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
Findings suggest academic self-efficacy and perceived lecturer support are positive and significant predictors of study engagement. In addition, perceived lecturer support was a significant moderator between academic self-efficacy and study engagement.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first to have tested a model including academic self-efficacy, study engagement and perceived lecturer support in a technical university setup from a developing country perspective.
... However, students with their experiences in everyday school life, who are, at the same time, early adolescents going through the time of intense changes associated with pubertal development, are likely to deal with a combination of different stressors that may instigate the development of school alienation and hamper students' academic success (Eccles et al. 2008;Schunk and Meece 2005). Along with pressures that are brought to bear on them, students are almost inevitably confronted with the necessity to act productively in the learning environment from which they are alienated, fulfilling increasing demands of the education sector (Yazzie-Mintz and McCormick 2012). Students from social backgrounds who lack cultural and financial resources may face additional challenges in establishing their status within a social field like school and thus show higher levels of alienation from school (Barber et al. 2005). ...
Early adolescence represents a particularly sensitive period in the life of young learners, which is accompanied by an increase in school alienation. Due to its harmful nature (Hascher and Hadjar in Educ Res 60:171–188, 2018. 10.1080/00131881.2018.1443021), school alienation may lead to unfavorable consequences such as low academic achievement (Johnson in J Educ Technol Soc 8:179–189, 2005; Reinke and Herman in Psychol Schools 39:549–559, 2002). This study investigates the longitudinal relationship between school alienation domains, namely alienation from learning, from teachers, and from classmates, and academic achievement among secondary school students of grade 7 to grade 9 in Switzerland and Luxembourg. Data were collected from 403 students in the Swiss canton of Bern and 387 students in Luxembourg who participated in three waves of the “School Alienation in Switzerland and Luxembourg (SASAL)” research project. Cross-lagged modeling was applied to examine the correlations between school alienation domains and academic achievement at each of the three time points, the temporal stability of school alienation domains and academic achievement, and their cross-lagged effects across time, controlling for students’ gender, school track, parental occupational status, and migration background. Results show that the pattern of relationships is defined by the school alienation domain and the cultural context, pointing to the complex interplay between the multidimensional construct of school alienation and academic outcomes of secondary school students.
... For example, some authors feel that the perception of the utility of the school/education should be considered as emotional engagement (Finn, 2006), whilst others consider it to fall under cognitive engagement (Appleton, Christenson, Kim, & Reschly, 2006;Christenson et al., 2008). The same happens with student relationships with professors or their peers: some authors consider these to be part of emotional engagement (Appleton et al., 2006), whilst others consider them to be a dimension of behavioural engagement (Yazzie-Mintz & McCormick, 2012). Ultimately, this lack of consensus limits the conclusions that can be drawn, making comparisons difficult. ...
The main objective of this article is to define a typology of students enrolled in intermediate vocational education and training programmes in Spain. Students were first placed in groups based on various factors related to engagement. Then, their sociodemographic characteristics were analysed. Finally, the intentions of dropping out were considered in each of the groups. The results obtained describe a typology of students consisting of five groups with different levels of engagement. Each of the groups is associated with distinct sociodemographic characteristics and shows notable differences with regards to intentions of leaving their studies. The results of this research can serve to detect and prevent drop‐outs that take place at this level by identifying at‐risk profiles and creating more adequate approaches and interventions.
... The analysis of correlations has been verified in all cases, and there is an especially high correlation between school and student commitment and support for students, on the one hand school and student commitment and support for students. As the literature has indicated (De Witte et al. 2013), the school and teaching staff are crucial to the students' academic behaviour (Woolley, Kol, and Bowen 2009), as well as to students' motivation and participation in their academic progress (Walsh, Larsen, and Parry 2009;Yazzie-Mintz and McCormick 2012). The final analysis carried out, the ANOVA, aimed to compare the answers between the types of informantsthe teaching staff who fundamentally perform classroom tasks and tutoring, and the members of the school who perform management and leadership functions (team managers and department heads)to check for a possible difference in perspective on dropout predictors. ...
The phenomenon of school dropout is perceived as a process that is caused by a variety of factors. Through a questionnaire, teachers in different academic functions (teaching and management) are surveyed to study their perception of school dropout factors at the secondary education level. Factors related to the student, school, family and commitment to learning were noted. According to teachers, the group of factors that most affect school dropout is related to commitment and support for students. In addition, statistically significant relationships between the different groups of dropout factors are verified, and no significant differences were observed between the responses of teachers with teaching functions and those with management functions. Various strategies for preventing school failure are proposed.
... In their study of student-teacher relationship in the United States, Woolley et al. (2009) found that teacher support mediated the effect of classmate and parental support on student behavior. In addition, the U.S.-based High School Study of Student Engagement, conducted with more than 40,000 students in 103 high schools across 27 different states, reported that students identified teacher support as critical to student engagement (Yazzie-Mintz and McCormick, 2012). However, the pathways through which social contexts (i.e., parent, classmate, and teacher support) affect different dimensions of student engagement remains unclear in the student engagement scholarship from sub-Saharan Africa because existing studies have not adequately explored these relationships. ...
The literature is unequivocal about the importance of improving academic engagement in addressing challenges such as school drop out or increasing student motivation. What is less certain, particularly in the literature from developing countries, is how social support systems (parents, teachers, and classmates) influence students’ emotional and behavioral engagement. Drawing from the ecological perspective, this study analyzes data from Ghana using structural equation modeling to examine mediated and unmediated pathways through which parent, teacher, and classmate support affect students’ emotional and behavioral engagement. Findings suggest classmate support has the strongest association with student engagement, followed by parental support. Teacher support is neither a mediator nor a direct predictor of student engagement. These findings have implications for teacher training and professional development, especially training on how to actively involve parents in motivating their children to be engaged scholars.
Many applied field research articles that have been published in the Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology have reported the development of classroom-based psychoeducational programs aimed at fostering students' non-academic competence (e.g., social and emotional competence) and have examined the effectiveness of those programs. However, being classroom-based may create serious challenges for the evaluation of program effectiveness. Based on a hypothetical model of the association between classes at school and intervention programs, the present article describes some possible challenges from the following perspectives: (a) whether the primary effects of an intervention program and their mediational influence on the secondary effects were verified, (b) whether student-level observations within each intervention class were independent of each other, (c) whether fidelity of implementation was assessed, and (d) whether the issue of the demand characteristics of the intervention was addressed. The present review of 22 applied field research articles published in the Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology from 2009 to 2022 revealed that the majority of them were lacking in relation to these perspectives. The discussion suggests limitations of the present review and future directions for applied field research.
Engagement is an essential aspect of students’ success in learning. Even though students’ engagement with learning has been widely investigated, the level of learners’ online engagement and the relationship between learners’ online engagement and their achievement, especially in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context, using a learning management system (i.e. Blackboard), remains unexplored. To fill that gap, this study examines the effects of learner engagement, using its three dimensions (behavioural, emotional, and cognitive), on students’ achievement in learning EFL in online courses. In total, 189 college students participated in the study. Data was analysed using the second-generation analysis technique structural equation modelling (SEM) to examine the relationships among constructs and test the hypothesis. Results revealed that students’ engagement significantly affected their achievement in learning EFL in an online environment.
Objective: This study aimed to identify the factors influencing the academic well-being of gifted students to develop a model. Methods and Materials: The research method used in this study was qualitative, utilizing a grounded theory approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The data were examined and analyzed based on Strauss and Corbin's (1998) grounded theory methodology. The study population consisted of all male and female gifted sixth-grade students in the city of Isfahan in 2022. The research sample was selected through purposive sampling, and after conducting interviews with 23 students, the factors influencing academic well-being were identified. It should be noted that data analysis was conducted using three stages of open, axial, and selective coding. Findings: Based on the results of the study, open codes were organized around 57 concepts, axial codes included 8 concepts, and selective codes were identified and extracted into 4 concepts under the titles of school context, family context, social context, and individual resources. Conclusion: The findings of the research suggest that by recognizing and understanding the factors influencing academic well-being, it is possible to create conditions that enhance the academic well-being of gifted students.
With examples and emerging possibilities for quantitative research to advance equity and social justice in education, this article provides a conceptual foundation in applied quantitative methods for student affairs professionals, including an overview of common themes in inferential statistical tools, introduction to latent constructs, and guidance for evaluating the quality of quantitative measures and results.
In China’s middle schools, each class is assigned both subject teachers who only instruct students on specific course and one classroom teacher who not only teaches in class but also provides out-class-support. This study evaluates whether classroom teachers are more effective than subject teachers in improving students’ academic performance. To examine the causal effect of the classroom teacher, I take the advantage of data that students are randomly assigned to classes in middle schools in China and exploit the within-teacher variation given a teacher acting as a classroom teacher for his or her own class but also giving lectures to other class(es) as a subject teacher in one term in China. The findings show that a classroom teacher has a significant positive effect on the students’ test scores in his or her own class compared with other classes he or she teaches. I further investigate the possible mechanisms and find that classroom teachers tend to have more interactions with their own class both inside class and outside class beyond giving lectures than with other classes they teach. This study provides insights for understanding the effect of teacher support outside class on students’ academic outcomes.
Driven by the initiative of e-learning, mobile technologies such as tablets, with the merits of portability and accessibility, have become vital tools for creating ubiquitous learning and mobile learning (m-learning) environments in science education. The reconstruction of the science learning environment enabled by mobile technologies may influence students’ learning engagement and correspondingly affect their science learning performance. Considering the limited empirical studies on student engagement in the m-learning environment at the senior secondary level, this study focuses on exploring the characteristics of students’ engagement in a mobile technology-supported science learning environment. In the study, a class with 45 10th grade students and three teachers at a senior secondary school was videotaped and observed. The data of students’ behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagements from 60 science lessons was coded and analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively from the social-cultural perspective. On that basis, the correlations among these three dimensions of engagements in m-science learning environment were further calculated. The findings indicated the progress and pitfalls of current mobile technology-supported teaching and learning practices in science education. The results and discussions will inform the pedagogical design and implementation of mobile learning in science education.
This study aims to investigate whether and to what extent students experience (dis)engagement in online language learning. In order to utilize the malleable feature of student engagement, the present study explores the facilitative impacts of a collaborative authentic task on promoting student engagement in online language learning. Participants included 88 high school students. The data was gathered over a four-week period through an engagement questionnaire and focus group interviews. The results suggest that a collaborative real-world relevant task that involves learners' views and opinions and produces output that is useful in real-life is likely to boost learners' online class engagement cognitively, agentically, behaviorally, and emotionally. Moreover, as the flow of instruction involves less structure but more dialogue and self-directedness, the implementation of a collaborative task authentic task notably decreases transactional distance.
Purpose
This study investigates the relationship between perceived supervisor support (PSS) and learner career curiosity and tests the mediating role of sense of belonging, engagement and learning self-efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a three-wave repeated cross-sectional data collected from 509 final-year undergraduate students of 11 Nigerian public universities, who had completed the compulsory work placement to analyze the influence of PSS on learner’s career curiosity via a parallel mediation involving sense of belonging, engagement (behavioural, emotional and cognitive) and self-efficacy.
Findings
The results show that engagement mediates the path through which PSS influences career curiosity. However, the authors found no evidence that sense of belonging and self-efficacy mediated the relationship between PSS and learner’s career curiosity in this population.
Originality/value
The findings of this study highlight the importance of PSS as a resource that influences learner’s career curiosity, particularly during a work placement.
The goal of this chapter is to outline the engagement concept, namely the manifold definitions of engagement and how they are used at secondary and tertiary level. I discuss differing views on the dimensions of engagement, its measurability as well as what I termed The Engagement Motivation Dilemma. This chapter ends with a discussion of the Dynamic-Engagement-Framework where engagement and motivation are integral parts of this framework, which is seen as a dynamic process influenced by mediating factors.
Through civic engagement, adolescents can increase community vitality, challenge injustices, and address social problems. Positive youth development (PYD) theory and research has generated knowledge of ecological assets (resources and supports in everyday environments) that foster youth civic engagement. Yet, assets and opportunities are not equally available to all youth. Youth of color in urban high‐poverty neighborhoods merit more concerted attention in research on civic development to inform theory, policy, and practice. A primary goal of this monograph is to broaden academic and public discourse about what civic engagement looks like and how it develops for urban youth of color who live in high‐poverty neighborhoods.
We conducted one time, face‐to‐face interviews and brief quantitative surveys with 87 youth of color (90% Black and Black multiracial; 59.8% male; ages 12–19) recruited from five youth centers in Rochester, New York, from 2015 to 2016. Interviews elicited youth's perspectives on how they define and experience civic engagement, community problems, connections and discussions to community, and adult supports. We used an inductive qualitative methodology.
In Chapter I, we review what is known about civic engagement among urban youth of color. We lay out evidence for ecological assets that support youth civic engagement, aligned with a PYD perspective, and articulate ways to expand beyond PYD to understand youth empowerment and urban contexts.
In Chapter II, we summarize national and local contexts that may shape the experiences of urban youth of color in our study. To set the stage for the empirical chapters that follow, we describe our sample, study design, and methodology.
In Chapter III, we examine how urban youth of color in Rochester experience community violence and discuss the implications of these experiences for civic development. Youth articulated violence as a serious community problem and powerfully discussed frequent, personal, direct and indirect exposures to violence. Due to fear and lack of safety, some youth strategically disconnected from community and relationships and experienced disempowerment. Others reacted to violence with a tendency toward self‐protection. For some, community violence was a catalyst for civic action.
In Chapter IV, we investigate how youth defined and experienced civic engagement. Youth's civic participation spanned helping community, engaging politically, participating in school or community organizations, engaging in social and leisure activities, and taking personal responsibility. Youth's civic actions were largely informal and localized. Some civic participation was contextualized as a response to community violence, such as intervening to protect peers from harm. Some youth were not civically engaged.
In Chapter V, we map out what civic empowerment looks like for these youth and how civic empowerment links to civic action. Supporting prior theory, we found evidence for emotional, relational, and cognitive dimensions of civic empowerment and experiences of civic disempowerment. Emotional empowerment was most closely aligned with civic action, although any expressions of civic empowerment suggest youth are developing building blocks for civic participation.
In Chapter VI, we investigate ecological assets that support youth's civic development. Safe community spaces such as youth centers provided familiarity and comfort, opportunities to forge connections with others, and places to help and be helped. Adults supported youth by enabling youth to feel heard, not judging them, serving as role models, and offering guidance and support. Youth were equally articulate about how adults fail to support or empower them. We conclude that some assets generally support positive development and others specifically foster civic development.
In Chapter VII, we integrate findings across chapters into a conceptual model of four distinct pathways of civic development. We systematically examined differences among youth who are disengaged, personally responsible, safely engaged, and broadly engaged. All pathways are adaptive, and youth found different ways to navigate community violence and other adversities.
As summarized in Chapter VIII, our study informs theory and future research on civic engagement among urban youth of color in contexts of adversity. We put forward four important elements needed for theory of civic development to be relevant for urban youth of color. Then we offer policy and practice recommendations: (a) investment in safe spaces and violence‐reduction policies should be a top priority; (b) youth should be involved in decision‐making about solutions to issues of concern to them; (c) civic engagement programs and opportunities should center on local issues and allow for multiple forms of engagement; (d) all youth should be heard and taken seriously by the adults in their lives.
The 2006 and 2015 What Works Clearinghouse reviews of dropout prevention programs found Check & Connect to have positive effects on staying and progressing in school. In this chapter, the student engagement intervention, Check & Connect, is described in terms of what it is (i.e., components and elements), how it is implemented (i.e., preparation and implementation steps), and its effectiveness with different samples of students in different educational settings. Lessons learned across the various implementations of Check & Connect with elementary and secondary students with and without disabilities in suburban and urban school districts conclude the chapter.
This study investigated how task complexity influences second language (L2) writing. Specifically, it focused on the possibility that prompts can create different demands at different stages of L2 writing production and on ways that prompts may affect learners’ engagement in the revision of their writing. Fifty‐one English as a foreign/second language participants, divided into two groups, wrote a narrative essay. One group was asked to write about a past success (the recalling prompt, high in formulation demand). The other group was asked to write about an imagined future success (the imagining prompt, high in conceptualization demand). Both groups wrote a draft and had unlimited revision opportunities. Writing performance was evaluated in terms of the complexity, accuracy, fluency, and lexis produced in the participants’ first draft. Learner engagement was assessed in terms of the time the participants voluntarily chose to spend on revision. The findings indicated that (i) the recalling prompt resulted in more complex but less accurate sentences than the imagining prompt; and (ii) the recalling prompt resulted in more extended engagement in revision than the imagining prompt. The findings suggest linguistic and behavioral influences of prompts on writing. Pedagogical implications are offered. Prompts have been used in task‐based language teaching to manipulate task complexity. Given the processes that are unique to written communication, how might the function of a prompt differ for speaking and writing tasks? How might the demands of writing prompts vary at different stages of language production or affect writing performance and learner engagement?
Sociopolitical development, the process of coming to understand and take action against systems of oppression, is associated with key outcomes for youth. Although rooted in Paulo Freire's work on critical consciousness, sociopolitical development models overlook a motivational attribute—curiosity—that Freire characterized as a catalyst of such development. This longitudinal study investigated the relationship between curiosity and two aspects of sociopolitical development (social analysis, societal involvement) in a sample of Black and Latinx adolescents (N = 659). Longitudinal growth models demonstrated positive growth in all constructs over 4‐years of high school. Multivariate growth models revealed a positive correlation at baseline between curiosity and both constructs; growth in curiosity was also positively correlated with growth in social analysis and societal involvement.
Student engagement with science is a long-standing, central interest within science education research. In this article, we examine student engagement with science using a Bourdiusian lens, placing a particular emphasis on the notion of field. Over the course of one academic year, we collected data in an inner London secondary science classroom through lesson observations, interviews and discussion groups with students, and interviews with the teacher. We argue that applying Bourdieusian theory can help better understand differential patterns of student engagement by directing attention to the alignment between students’ habitus and capital, and the field. Student behaviours that did not meet the requirements of the wider field were not recognised and valued as constituting engagement. Even when the ‘rules of the game’ of the science classroom were understood by the students, the tensions they experienced within the field made engaging with science impossible and undesirable. We discuss how a greater focus on the field can be useful for planning future interventions aimed at making science education more equitable.
Despite an increased awareness of language learner performance in task-based instruction, little is known about how learners perceive and respond to different task factors. This study investigates the effects of task complexity and modality on (a) learners’ perception of task difficulty, skill, and its balance, and on (b) learners’ task experience. It adopts Csikszentmihalyi's (1975) construct of flow, characterized by interest, attention, and control. It further examines how difficulty–skill balance predicts flow experience. In a repeated measures design, 141 learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) performed 4 argumentative tasks that differed in task complexity (+/– elements) and modality (speaking vs. writing), and completed a questionnaire asking about their perception of task difficulty, skills, and task experience. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance showed that, although both task complexity and modality affected learner perception of task difficulty, only modality influenced perceived skill and flow; writing provided more favorable task experiences regarding the difficulty–skill balance and flow. Furthermore, difficulty–skill balance significantly predicted flow experience, but the condition seems insufficient for affecting flow.
There is increasing interest in researcher-practitioner partnerships, particularly those that take the form of a Networked Improvement Community. In this paper, we describe the partnership between the National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools and the Fort Worth Independent School District to build student ownership and responsibility. By outlining the organizational structures established to enact the partnership and roles of our various partners, we provide an in-depth look at how one researcher-practitioner partnership operates. We begin by describing the concept of an improvement community as one type of partnership, identify several types of improvement communities currently operating in educational systems, and define the key features of improvement communities. Then, we outline the specific improvement communities that are central to the Center's work, highlighting how these structures help us enact our partnership. We end with our reflections about how the partnership created new roles for both researchers and practitioners as well as the challenges and opportunities that accompanied those new roles.
This article extends existing research on school effectiveness by focusing on identifying the combination of programs, practices, processes, and policies that explain why some high schools in a large urban district are effective at serving low-income students, minority students, and English language learners. Using a mixed methods study of high schools selected on the basis of value-added indicators, we conducted a comparative case study to understand what differentiated schools that “beat the odds” from those that struggled to improve student achievement. We found that the higher-value-added schools enacted practices that integrated academic press and support in ways that fostered student efficacy and engagement. These findings contribute to the larger literature on school effectiveness by highlighting the importance of the student culture of learning and noncognitive student characteristics. They do so by identifying student ownership and responsibility as a critical area for research on school effectiveness and improvement.
This study explores the impact of one-to-one computing on student achievement in Ohio high schools as measured by performance on the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT). The sample included 24 treatment schools that were individually paired with a similar control school. An interrupted time series methodology was deployed to examine OGT data over a period of 5 to 8 years. Overall student performance and content-specific achievement in math, reading, science, social studies, and writing were not significantly affected by the introduction of 1:1 computing. Treatment schools using a netbook device produced the greatest overall change in scores.
In this article, we describe a model for reading engagement that emerged from interviews with high school students who participated in a yearlong supplemental intervention course. The course focused on motivation, strategies, content learning, and communication within the context of themed instruction. We sought to ascertain instructional factors, within the context of the supplemental reading course, that were most engaging for students from the students’ perspective. Using constant comparative analysis methods, we identified themes that emerged from interviews with 63 students who participated in the intervention. Participants articulated the significance of relevant texts, self-efficacy with valued tasks, classroom relationships, and reading strategies in influencing their literacy engagement. Based on these themes, we present an engagement model that expands on earlier models emphasizing cognitive, behavioral, motivational, and social dimensions. Implications suggest pathways for engaging students who are participating in targeted literacy interventions. 2016
This article explores how learners engage in tasks in the context of language classrooms. We describe engagement as a multidimensional construct that includes cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional dimensions of engagement among second and foreign language learners in the classroom. We discuss key concepts and indicators of engagement in current research on task-based interaction and outline some of the issues in researching engagement in this context.
This article provides an overview of definitions and measures related to school engagement. The intent herein, is to explore the construct and measurement of school engagement and related terms and provide a summary of previous literature, in an effort to offer a foundation to advance related scholarship and practice. Previous articles exploring school engagement, school bonding, and other associated terms (e.g., school attachment, school commitment, motivation) include a variety of definitions and measures. Items used in previous research addressing school engagement and related terms were classified into five contexts: a) academic performance, b) classroom behavior, c) extracurricular involvement, d) interpersonal relationships, and e) school community. Based on this review, it is suggested that school engagement is a multifaceted construct that includes affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions. Conceptualizing school engagement as a multifaceted construct has implications for both research and practice.
As part of a longitudinal case study on engagement in middle years mathematics, 20 students attending their first year of secondary school in Western Sydney were asked to provide views on their experiences of the transition to secondary school in relation to mathematics teaching and learning. Differences in teacher-student relationships caused the most concern due to the decrease in teacher-student interactions and a reliance on computer-generated mathematics lessons. Findings indicate that a strong pedagogical relationship forms the foundation for sustained engagement in mathematics during the middle years. During the transition from primary to secondary schooling many students experience significant changes in the physical structure, teaching and learning practices, and expectations of school. In an Australian setting, transition to high school occurs when students are aged between 11 and 12, a time when they are experiencing physiological, psychological and social changes associated with adolescence (Downs, 2003; Moroney & Stocks, 2005). Literature suggests difficult transitions can lead to disengagement, negative attitudes towards school, reduced self-confidence, and reduced levels of motivation, particularly in the area of mathematics education (McGee, Ward, Gibbons, & Harlow, 2003). Disengagement in mathematics can lead to reducing the range of higher education courses available to students and can limit their capacity to understand life experiences through a mathematical perspective (Sullivan, Mousley, & Zevenbergen, 2005). As part of a qualitative longitudinal case study on engagement in mathematics during the middle years (Years 5 to 8 in NSW), a group of 20 Year 6 students from one school were asked to provide their views on mathematics teaching and learning through individual interviews and focus group discussions. When the group began high school, they participated in a sequence of three focus group discussions over the course of the year. This paper is a report of some of the findings of this study. It focuses on the changes encountered by the students in terms of their experiences within the secondary mathematics classroom.
This article explores the relationship between student engagement and student self‐assessment. It reports on research that has reconceptualised ways of understanding levels of student engagement among primary school learners who live in poor communities. These ways of understanding have been influential in the development of a student self‐assessment framework. This framework is presented in the article, as well as a description of its evolution and how it is used within classrooms involved in the research.
Background/Context
Educators have written about and studied school climate for 100 years. School climate refers to the quality and character of school life. School climate is based on patterns of people's experiences of school life and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures. However, school climate is more than individual experience: It is a group phenomenon that is larger than any one person's experience. A sustainable, positive school climate fosters youth development and learning necessary for a productive, contributive, and satisfying life in a democratic society. This climate includes norms, values, and expectations that support people feeling socially, emotionally, and physically safe. People are engaged and respected. Students, families, and educators work together to develop, live, and contribute to a shared school vision. Educators model and nurture an attitude that emphasizes the benefits of, and satisfaction from, learning. Each person contributes to the operations of the school and the care of the physical environment. School climate refers to spheres of school life (e.g. safety, relationships, teaching and learning, the environment) as well as to larger organizational patterns (e.g., from fragmented to cohesive or “shared” vision, healthy or unhealthy, conscious or unrecognized). These definitions were collaboratively developed and agreed upon at a consensus-building meeting of national practice and policy leaders organized in April 2007 by the National Center for Learning and Citizenship, Education Commission of the States, and the Center for Social and Emotional Education.
Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study
This article examines the relationship between school-climate-related research findings on the one hand and educational policy, school improvement practice, and teacher education on the other.
Research Design
This article uses several research methods to understand the current state of school climate research, policy, practice, and teacher education: historical analysis, a review of the literature, a national State Department of Education policy scan, and a national survey (N = 40) of building, district, and state educational leaders about school climate measurement and improvement practices.
Findings/Results
A review of the literature reveals that a growing body of empirical research indicates that positive school climate is associated with and/or predictive of academic achievement, school success, effective violence prevention, students’ healthy development, and teacher retention. There is a glaring gap between these research findings on the one hand, and state departments of education, school climate policy, practice guidelines, and teacher education practice on the other.
Conclusions/Recommendations
We detail how the gap between school climate research, policy, practice, and teacher education is socially unjust and a violation of children's human rights. We now have research-based guidelines that predictably support positive youth development and student learning. If we do so, we are supporting children, educators, parents, communities, and the foundation for democratic process, but as a country, we are not doing so. Our children deserve better. A series of detailed recommendations are suggested for policy makers, practice leaders, and teacher educators to narrow this gap and support student's healthy development and capacity to learn.
Age differences in intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and the relationships of each to academic outcomes were examined in an ethnically diverse sample of 797 3rd-grade through 8th-grade children. Using independent measures, the authors found intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to be only moderately correlated, suggesting that they may be largely orthogonal dimensions of motivation in school. Consistent with previous research, intrinsic motivation showed a significant linear decrease from 3rd grade through 8th grade and proved positively correlated with children's grades and standardized test scores at all grade levels. Extrinsic motivation showed few differences across grade levels and proved negatively correlated with academic outcomes. Surprisingly few differences based on children's sex or ethnicity were found. Causes and consequences of the disturbingly low levels of motivation for older, relative to younger, children are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested the role of parental motivational practices in children's academic intrinsic motivation and achievement in a longitudinal study of children at ages 9 and 10 yrs. Two types of motivational practices were assessed: mothers' encouragement of children's task endogeny and provision of task-extrinsic consequences. Structural equations path models for general-verbal and math academic areas supported the 2 predictions that children's academic intrinsic motivation is positively related to encouragement of task endogeny and negatively related to provision of task-extrinsic consequences. Academic intrinsic motivation at age 9 yrs predicted motivation and achievement at age 10 yrs. Moreover, through motivation at 9 yrs, the motivational practices indirectly affected motivation at 10 yrs and achievement. Findings provide ecological validity for the role of parental motivational practices in children's academic intrinsic motivation and achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We present a conceptualization of student engagement based on the culmination of concentration, interest, and enjoyment (i.e., flow). Using a longitudinal sample of 526 high school students across the U.S., we investigated how adolescents spent their time in high school and the conditions under which they reported being engaged. Participants experienced increased engagement when the perceived challenge of the task and their own skills were high and in balance, the instruction was relevant, and the learning environment was under their control. Participants were also more engaged in individual and group work versus listening to lectures, watching videos, or taking exams. Suggestions to increase engagement, such as focusing on learning activities that support students' autonomy and provide an appropriate level of challenge for students' skills, conclude the article. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Children's sense of relatedness is vital to their academic motivation from 3rd to 6th grade. Children's (n = 641) reports of relatedness predicted changes in classroom engagement over the school year and contributed over and above the effects of perceived control. Regression and cumulative risk analyses revealed that relatedness to parents, teachers, and peers each uniquely contributed to students' engagement, especially emotional engagement. Girls reported higher relatedness than boys, but relatedness to teachers was a more salient predictor of engagement for boys. Feelings of relatedness to teachers dropped from 5th to 6th grade, but the effects of relatedness on engagement were stronger for 6th graders. Discussion examines theoretical, empirical, and practical implications of relatedness as a key predictor of children's academic motivation and performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A new conceptualization of perceived control was used to test a process model describing the contribution of these perceptions to school achievement for students in elementary school (
N = 220). Three sets of beliefs were distinguished: (a) expectations about whether one can influence success and failure in school (
control beliefs); (b) expectations about the
strategies that are effective in producing academic outcomes; and (c) expectations about one's own
capacities to execute these strategies. Correlational and path analyses were consistent with a process model which predicted that children's perceived control (self-report) influences academic performance (grades and achievement test scores) by promoting or undermining active
engagement in learning activities (as reported by teachers) and that teachers positively influence children's perceived control by provision of
contingency and
involvement (as reported by students). These results have implications for theories of perceived control and also suggest one pathway by which teachers can enhance children's motivation in school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Research supports the connection between engagement, achievement, and school behavior across levels of economic and social advantage and disadvantage. Despite increasing interest and scientific findings, a number of interrelated conceptual and methodological issues must be addressed to advance this construct, particularly for designing data-supported interventions that promote school completion and enhanced educational outcomes for all students. Of particular concern is the need to (a) develop consensus on the name of the construct, (b) identify reliable measures of the dimensions of the construct, and (c) complete the construct validation studies needed to move research and intervention forward. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The levels of engagement in mathematics experienced by students during the middle years of schooling (Years 5 to 8 in New
South Wales) has been of concern in Australia for some years. Lowered engagement in school has been attributed to factors
such as inappropriate teaching strategies, curricula that is unchallenging and irrelevant, and cultural and technological
conditions that continue to evolve (Sullivan et al. Australian Journal of Education 53(2):176-191, 2009). There is currently a gap in this field of research in terms of a lack of longitudinal studies conducted in an Australian
context that feature students’ voices and their perceptions of mathematics teaching and learning during the middle years.
As part of a qualitative longitudinal case study spanning 3 school years, 20 students in their final year of primary school
(aged between 11 and 12years) were asked to provide their views on mathematics teaching and learning. The aim of the study
was to explore the students’ perspectives of mathematics teaching and learning to discover pedagogies that engage the students.
During focus group discussions and individual interviews the students discussed qualities of a “good” mathematics teacher
and aspects of “good” lessons. These were found to resonate well with current Australian quality teaching frameworks. The
findings of this study indicate that students in the middle years are critically aware of pedagogies that lead to engagement
in mathematics, and existing standards and frameworks should be used as a starting point for quality teaching of mathematics.
KeywordsEngagement–Middle years–Interactions–Relationship–Pedagogy
Engagement refers to the behavioral intensity and emotional quality of a person's active involvement during a task. Recognizing the benefits highly engaged people experience, we tested whether classroom teachers could incorporate the relatively foreign concept of autonomy support into their motivating styles as a way to promote their students' engagement during instruction. Teachers in an experimental group and teachers in a delayed-treatment control group received information and guidance consistent with self-determination theory on how to support students' autonomy. Over a series of 3 classroom observations, trained raters scored each teacher's autonomy support and 2 measures of their students' engagement–task involvement and influence attempts. Trained teachers displayed significantly more autonomy-supportive behaviors than did nontrained teachers. Further, the more teachers used autonomy support during instruction, the more engaged were their students. This was true on both measures of engagement.
Research on dropping out of school has focused on characteristics of the individual or institution that correlate with the dropout decision. Many of these characteristics are nonmanipulable, and all are measured at one point in time, late in the youngster’s school career. This paper describes two models for understanding dropping out as a developmental process that may begin in the earliest grades. The frustration-self-esteem model has been used for years in the study of juvenile delinquency; it identifies school failure as the starting point in a cycle that may culminate in the student’s rejecting, or being rejected by, the school. The participation-identification model focuses on students’ “involvement in schooling,” with both behavioral and emotional components. According to this formulation, the likelihood that a youngster will successfully complete 12 years of schooling is maximized if he or she maintains multiple, expanding forms of participation in school-relevant activities. The failure of a youngster to participate in school and class activities, or to develop a sense of identification with school, may have significant deleterious consequences. The ability to manipulate modes of participation poses promising avenues for further research as well as for intervention efforts.
Although student engagement with the intellectual work of school is important to students' achievement and to their social and cognitive development, studies over a span of two decades have documented low levels of engagement, particularly in the classroom. Examining several theoretical perspectives that attempt to explain engagement through comprehensive frameworks, this study evaluates the effect on engagement of school reform initiatives that are consistent with the theories. The study also investigates whether patterns exist in students' engagement, whether the patterns are consistent across grade levels, and whether class subject matter (mathematics or social studies) differentially affects engagement. The sample includes 3.669 students representing 143 social studies and mathematics classrooms in a nationally selected sample of 24 restructuring elementary, middle, and high schools. Because of the nature of the nested data (students nested within classrooms nested within schools), the analysis is conducted using hierarchical linear modeling in its three-level application (HLM3L). The reform initiatives, which are consistent with the theories, eliminate personal background effects. Together with classroom subject matter, they substantially influence engagement. The results are generally consistent across grade levels.
Students' attachment to school and their academic engagement are important, yet understudied, aspects of the educational experience. In their study, the authors examined whether students of different racial-ethnic groups vary in attachment and engagement and whether properties of schools (e.g., racial-ethnic composition) influence these outcomes over and above individual characteristics. Using multilevel models with a sample of youths from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, they found important differences across racial-ethnic groups in both attachment and engagement. The racial-ethnic composition of schools is an important factor in students' attachment but not engagement. Moreover, the extent of racial and ethnic differences in both outcomes varies across high schools. These findings are discussed in terms of the challenges facing racially and ethnically diverse schools.
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Academic intrinsic motivation of intellectually gifted children and a comparison group was examined in the Fullerton Longitudinal Study. Children at ages 9 through 13 years were administered the Children's Academic Intrinsic Motivation Inventory which assesses intrinsic motivation for school learning in reading, math, social studies, science, and for school in general. Analyses showed that across the ages, relative to a peer comparison, gifted children had significantly higher academic intrinsic motivation across all subject areas and school in general. It is suggested that: Children who become intellectually gifted enjoy the process of learning to a greater extent; intrinsic motivation is important for potentiation of giftedness; Assessment of academic intrinsic motivation be included in selection of children for gifted programs.
The concept of school engagement has attracted increasing attention as representing a possible antidote to declining academic motivation and achievement. Engagement is presumed to be malleable, responsive to contextual features, and amenable to environmental change. Researchers describe behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement and recommend studying engagement as a multifaceted construct. This article reviews definitions, measures, precursors, and outcomes of engagement; discusses limitations in the existing research; and suggests improvements. The authors conclude that, although much has been learned, the potential contribution of the concept of school engagement to research on student experience has yet to be realized. They call for richer characterizations of how students behave, feel, and think—research that could aid in the development of finely tuned interventions
Student motivation is an important concern for all teachers. Recent research on student motivation has provided evidence for the development of important constructs and generalizations that have direct application to the classroom. Although there are many motivational constructs, self-efficacy is one that is key to promoting students' engagement and learning. Self-efficacy is discussed in terms of how it may facilitate behavioral, cognitive, and motivational engagement in the classroom. Specific suggestions for teacher practice are also provided.
This article argues for attending to the perspectives of those most directly affected by, but least often consulted about, educational policy and practice: students. The argument for authorizing student perspectives runs counter to U.S. reform efforts, which have been based on adults’ ideas about the conceptualization and practice of education. This article outlines and critiques a variety of recent attempts to listen to students, including constructivist and critical pedagogies, postmodern and poststructural feminisms, educational researchers’ and social critics’ work, and recent developments in the medical and legal realms, almost all of which continue to unfold within and reinforce adults’ frames of reference. This discussion contextualizes what the author argues are the twin challenges of authorizing student perspectives: a change in mindset and changes in the structures in educational relationships and institutions.
This report presents the number of high school graduates, the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR), and the dropout data for grades 9 through 12 for public schools in school year 2007-08. The counts of graduates, dropouts, and enrollments by grade are from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD) nonfiscal surveys of public elementary/secondary education. The data for this collection were reported to NCES through the U. S. Department of Education's ED"Facts" data collection system by state education agencies (SEAs). Although data from six sequential school years are presented in tables 3 and 7, only comparisons between the 2007-08 and 2006-07 school years are presented in the text. This report includes counts of high school graduates for school year 2007-08 for 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Data for high school graduates were missing from CCD reports for South Carolina, the Bureau of Indian Education, the U.S. Department of Defense domestic and overseas dependents schools, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam. Graduate counts were reported by race/ethnicity for 48 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Delaware did not report graduate counts by race/ethnicity. The AFGR could not be calculated by race/ethnicity for Nevada as enrollments by race/ethnicity were not reported for the 2004-05 school year. This report includes 2007-08 school year dropout data for 49 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The high frequency of missing data resulted in the suppression of dropout counts from Vermont. The reported dropout counts for Puerto Rico produced unrealistically low dropout rates and were therefore suppressed (see Appendix A for more details). The Bureau of Indian Education, the Department of Defense domestic and overseas dependents schools, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas, and Guam did not report dropouts. Selected findings include: (1) Across the United States, excluding South Carolina, a total of 2,965,286 public school students received a high school diploma in 2007-08, resulting in an Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR) of 74.9 percent; (2) Across all reporting states, the Averaged Freshmen Graduation Rate (AFGR) was highest for Asian/Pacific Islander students (91.4 percent); (3) A comparison of data from 2007-08 to data from the prior school year, 2006-07, shows a percentage point or greater increase in the Averaged Freshmen Graduation Rate (AFGR) for 16 states and the District of Columbia; (4) There were 613,379 dropouts from high school (grades 9 through 12) with an overall event dropout rate of 4.1 percent across all 49 reporting states and the District of Columbia in 2007-08; (5) Across all reporting states, the dropout rates increased as grade level increased; (6) Across all 47 states that were able to report high school dropouts by race/ethnicity the dropout rate was lowest for Asian/Pacific Islanders at 2.4 percent; (7) Comparisons between high school dropout rates in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years could be made for 48 states and the District of Columbia; and (8) Across the 47 states that were able to report high school dropouts by gender, the dropout rate was higher for males than for females at 4.6 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively. Methodology and Technical Notes is appended. (Contains 8 tables and 7 footnotes.)
The purpose of this study is to examine the degree to which various kinds of out-of-school activities in which adolescents are involved influence their school engagement, achievement, and perceptions of their life chances. It was assumed that, since students spend more time on average outside of school than in school, how they use this time is bound to have an impact on their school learning, school engagement, and whether their outlook toward the future is optimistic. Analysis of data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 for samples between 10,000 and 14,000 shows that student participation in structured activities and religious activities and time spent interacting with adults during 10th grade appear to have positive and significant effects on various educational outcomes by grade 12. Time spent "hanging out" with peers was consistently negatively associated with educational outcomes for the study sample, with few exceptions. The effects of time spent working for pay and time spent alone were somewhat inconsistent throughout the analysis. Analysis results have implications for after school and summer school policies and programs. An appendix describes the construction of study variables. (Contains 6 tables and 20 references.) (Author/SLD)
Teachers and administrators in public high schools recognize there is a dropout problem, know they are confronted with daunting challenges in classrooms and in schools, and express strong support for reforms to address high dropout rates. Yet, less than one-third of teachers believe that schools should expect all students to meet high academic standards, graduate with the skills to do college-level work, and provide extra support to struggling students to help them meet those standards. Although more than half of principals believe schools should hold these expectations for all students, significant majorities of both teachers and principals do not believe that students at risk for dropping out would respond to these high expectations and work harder. The authors' data, focus groups and colloquium indicate that the views of many teachers are shaped by what they see in the classroom, particularly among students who show low skill levels and weak motivation late into high school. Teachers, in large part, believe that they and their students are not receiving the necessary resources and supports. As a result, many teachers are skeptical about the possibility of educating every student for college. (Contains 117 notes.) [This report was prepared for the AT&T Foundation and the America's Promise Alliance.]
Research on dropping out of school has focused on characteristics of the individual or institution that correlate with the dropout decision. Many of these characteristics are nonmanipulable, and all are measured at one point in time, late in the youngster’s school career. This paper describes two models for understanding dropping out as a developmental process that may begin in the earliest grades. The frustration-self-esteem model has been used for years in the study of juvenile delinquency; it identifies school failure as the starting point in a cycle that may culminate in the student’s rejecting, or being rejected by, the school. The participation-identification model focuses on students’ “involvement in schooling,” with both behavioral and emotional components. According to this formulation, the likelihood that a youngster will successfully complete 12 years of schooling is maximized if he or she maintains multiple, expanding forms of participation in school-relevant activities. The failure of a youngster to participate in school and class activities, or to develop a sense of identification with school, may have significant deleterious consequences. The ability to manipulate modes of participation poses promising avenues for further research as well as for intervention efforts.
In her book, Philosophy in a New Key, Susanne Langer remarks that certain ideas burst upon the intellectual landscape with a tremendous force. They resolve so many fundamental problems at once that they seem also to promise that they will resolve all fundamental problems, clarify all obscure issues. Everyone snaps them up as the open sesame of some new positive science, the conceptual center-point around which a comprehensive system of analysis can be built. The sudden vogue of such a grande ideé, crowding out almost everything else for a while, is due, she says, "to the fact that all sensitive and active minds turn at once to exploiting it. We try it in every connection, for every purpose, experiment with possible stretches of its strict meaning, with generalizetions and derivatives." After we have become familiar with the new idea, however, after it has become part of our general stock of theoretical concepts, our expectations are brought more into balance with its actual uses, and its excessive popularity is ended. A few zealots persist in the old key-to-the-universe view of it; but less driven thinkers settle down after a while to the problems the idea has really generated. They try to apply it and extend it where it applies and where it is capable of extension; and they desist where it does not apply or cannot be extended. It becomes, if it was, in truth, a seminal idea in the first place, a permanent and enduring part of our intellectual armory. But it no longer has the grandiose, all-promising scope, the infinite versatility of apparent application, it once had.
What this book tells is what every teacher knows, that the world of school is a social world. Those human beings who live together in the school, though deeply severed in one sense, nevertheless spin a tangled web of interrelationships; that web and the people in it make up the social world of school. It is not a wide world, but, for those who know it, it is a world compact with meaning. It is a unique world. It is the purpose of this book to explore it. This work is a study of the life of human beings in the school. The point of view of the analysis is primarily sociological. The work is, in one sense, a systematic application of the concepts of sociology and social psychology to the social phenomena of school life. The chief utility of the book, probably, will be as a textbook in Educational Sociology, but I hope that it may have some general interest as well. I have tried, indeed, to write such a book as would appeal to every teacher everywhere. The method that has been employed in gathering and interpreting material is empirical and observational. The style is as non-technical as it was possible to make it without the loss of essential meanings. The purpose of the book, however it is used, is to give insight into concrete situations typical of the typical school. I have hewed to this line, and to no other. Whatever seemed likely to give insight has been included, and all else, however worth while in other respects, has been excluded. A certain amount of fictional material has been included. This must be judged as fiction; it is good fiction, and it is relevant to our point, if it is based upon good insight. A number of atypical cases have been included because of the illustrative value of such material. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The present study questioned whether intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation should be conceptualized as a trait among elementary school students. Previous instruments employing question formats that pit an intrinsic orientation against an extrinsic orientation typically result in normal distributions around the midpoint of the scale. Such a pattern could only result from a majority of children endorsing both intrinsic and extrinsic items. In the present study we investigated the hypothesis that such children may be intrinsically motivated in some school subjects but extrinsically motivated in others. Questions designed to assess motivational orientation in each of four academic subjects (math, social studies, English, and science) revealed three types of students: (a) those that were intrinsic in some subjects but extrinsic in others, (b) those that were intrinsic in all school subjects, and (c) those that were extrinsic in all school subjects. It was concluded that for the first group, motivational orientation does not function as a trait, but rather is specific to the academic content. However, for the second and third groups, motivational orientation does appear to be trait-like since children consistently report the same orientation across academic subjects. A similar analysis was applied to consistency vs. change over time where three groups were also identified. Discussion focused on the larger issues involving trait- vs. situation-specific approaches.
A review of relevant literatures led to the construction of a self-report instrument designed to measure two subtypes of student engagement with school: cognitive and psychological engagement. The psychometric properties of this measure, the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI), were assessed based on responses of an ethnically and economically diverse urban sample of 1931 ninth grade students. Factor structures were obtained using exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) on half of the dataset, with model fit examined using confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) on the other half of the dataset. The model displaying the best empirical fit consisted of six factors, and these factors correlated with expected educational outcomes. Further research is suggested in the iterative process of developing the SEI, and the implications of these findings are discussed.
This paper reports research into the effect on 11 year old pupils of introducing more cognitively challenging, practical, and interactive science lessons. Our hypothesis was that such lessons would increase the children’s enthusiasm for science and their engagement with the scientific process, thereby improving educational performance. Schools in England are under pressure to raise achievement, as measured by the results of national tests. This has an impact on teaching, where revision of subject knowledge often dominates and can be particularly detrimental to more able pupils. The research was a controlled trial which took place in 32 English primary schools as part of a project 'Conceptual Challenge in Primary Science'. Teachers from 16 intervention schools participated in continuing professional development (CPD) and developed science lessons that had more practical work, more discussion, more thinking and less (but more focused) writing. The proportion of pupils achieving the highest level (level 5) in the national science tests at age 11 was compared in the matched-school pairs before and after the intervention. Focus group interviews were also held with a group of pupils in each intervention school. There was a 10% (95% Confidence Interval 2-17%) increase in the proportion of children achieving the top score in the intervention schools. The pupils and teachers reported greater engagement and motivation. These findings suggest that moving from rote revision to cognitively challenging, interactive science could help improve science education. They merit replication in other international settings to test their generalisability.
How widespread is student disaffection with school in different education systems? What policies and practices are most effective in fostering students’ sense of belonging and participation in school? These questions are of great concern to educators in many countries, not only because of the interrelationship between student engagement at school and learning outcomes, but also because student engagement represents a valued outcome in itself. The OECD PISA provides not only information on students’ literacy skills, but also on their attitudes and values, their social backgrounds, and on important features of the schools they attend.
November) Student perspectives of mathematics teaching and learning in the upper primary classroom
- C Attard
Starting where the learner is: Listening to students
- A Cook-Sather
- J Shultz
- E Yazzie-Mintz
The relationship between perceived competence, affect, and motivational orientation within the classroom: Process and patterns of change Achievement and motivation: A social-developmental perspective
- S Harter
Student engagement and International Baccalaureate: Measuring the social, emotional, and academic engagement of IB students
- M S Johnson
- M Dean
Public school graduates and dropouts from the common core of data: School year 2007–08 (NCES 2010–341) Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
- R Stillwell
School engagement and students at risk
- J D Finn
Children’s voices: Children talk about literacy
- S Hudson-Ross
- L M Cleary
- Casey
Voices of students on engagement: A report on the 2006 High School Survey of Student Engagement
- E Yazzie-Mintz