What+is+Engagement?

media type="youtube" key="JqBZDIUQOjU" height="315" width="560" Definition of Student Engagement

Here is an excerpt from a paper that I wrote about student engagement for __//**Interpreting Educational Research**//__:

What is student engagement? This answer is not as simple as it seems, because researchers have many different terms for the same concept; it may be referred to as student engagement, academic engagement, or motivation. Student engagement has also been referred to as school engagement, bonding, attachment, connectedness, involvement, and commitment (Sharkey, Sukkyung & Schnoebelen, 2008, p. 402). Dotterer, McHale, and Crouter (2006) write that school engagement describes a student’s feelings, behaviors, and thoughts about their school experiences. Engagement does not have a formal definition and, at the simplest level, may be viewed as participation. Participation involves the youngster’s attending school and class, paying attention to the teacher, and taking part in curricular activities by responding appropriately to directions, questions, and assignments (Finn & Voelkl, 1993, p. 249). Other research describes engagement as having social and academic components, which has both behavioral and motivational aspects (Archambault et al., 2009). The more that I researched student engagement, the more I realized that each of the definitions, though different from one another, all had something in common; they all involve the student being actively involved in school and their learning. Appleton et al. (2006) acknowledge that engagement has multiple components, and is comprised of behavioral and affective components. Behaviors that show engagement include participation in class and school and affective indicators are school identification, belonging, and valuing learning. The reason why it is so difficult to have a precise definition of student engagement is because engagement involves so many different observable external processes and individual internal processes. Despite the various methods of describing student engagement, most researchers agree that engagement has three distinct characteristics. According to the most recent literature reviews, student engagement is comprised of behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, and cognitive engagement (Shernoff & Schmidt, 2008). Behavioral engagement may be defined as positive conduct, effort, and participation in school-related activities, emotional engagement as students’ interest, belonging, and positive attitude about learning, and cognitive engagement as self-regulation, learning goals, and investment in learning (Appleton et al., 2006, p. 429). Out of the more than thirty research studies that I examined, almost all agreed that student engagement has behavioral, emotional, and cognitive components. With such a broad definition, it is clear that there are many ways of engaging students and that teachers and schools need to have a multidimensional approach towards engaging the students that they work with.

__References__ Appleton, J., Christenson, S., Reschly, A. (2006). Measuring cognitive and psychological engagement: validation of the student engagement instrument. //Journal of School Psychology//, //44//(5), 427-445. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2006.04.002

Archambault, I., Janosz, M., Fallu, J., & Pagani, L. (2009). Student engagement and its relationship with early high school dropout. //Journal of Adolescence//, //32//(3), 651. Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier database.

Dotterer, A., McHale, S., Crouter, A. (2007). Implications of out-of-school activities for school engagement in african american adolescents. //Journal of Youth and Adolescence//, //36//(4), 391-401. doi: 10.1007/s10964-006-9161-3

Finn, J., & Voelkl, K. (1993). School characteristics related to student engagement. //Journal of// //Negro Education//, //62//(3), 249-268. Retrieved from SocINDEX database.

Sharkey, J., Sukkyung, Y., & Schnoebelen, K. (2008). Relations among school assets, individual resilience, and student engagement for youth grouped by level of family functioning. //Psychology in the Schools//, //45//(5), 402-418. doi:10.1002/pits.20305

Shernoff, D., & Schmidt, J. (2008). Further Evidence of an Engagement–Achievement Paradox Among U.S. High School Students. //Journal of Youth & Adolescence//, //37//(5), 564-580. doi:10.1007/s10964-007-9241-z