Theories of Student Engagement in Education

Chapter 2

Origin of Engagement Research.

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The underlying foundation of engagement is a relationship between students learn and the time, effort, and resources they devote to their education. Such a relationship seems self-evident and awareness of it is not new. John Dewey, renowned philosopher and educator, described similar ideas in his pedagogic creed (1897). Though hardly novel, the systematic study of these relationships as educational engagement only became commonplace within the past 40 years (Ewell, 2008; Finn & Zimmer, 2012; King-Alexander, 2000; Kuh, 2009).

The genesis of modern engagement research is unclear and a point of disagreement between researchers (Merwin, 1969; Kuh, 2009 Pike, Kuh, & McCormick, 2010; Trowler, 2010). Three researchers are commonly credited. The earliest of these is Ralph Tyler (1930), who studied the relationship between learning and time spent on a task (Merwin, 1969; Kuh, 2009).

More commonly, the origin modern engagement research is thought to have originated with Alexander Astin’s “Student Involvement Theory” (Astin, 1985; Ewell, 2008; Heibergert, & Loken, 2011; Junco, Pike, Kuh, & McCormick, 2010; Trowler, 2010). Indeed, Astin’s theory seems to capture the foundational logic of engagement. Astin stated, “Quite simply, student involvement refers to the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience.” (Astin, 1984, p. 518). To clarify his intended meaning of involvement Astin (1984) presented a list of similar verbs; these included “to partake”, “join in”, or “engage in”.

In his theory, Astin (1984) suggested a positive relationship between college student involvement and both personal and academic growth. Astin (1984) described student development as a function of the “…quantity and quality of the physical and psychological energy that students invest in the college experience… such as absorption in academic work, participation in extra-curricular activities, and interaction with faculty or other institutional personnel” (Astin, 1984, p. 518). Astin’s theory stated that “student developmental outcomes” not only depend upon content or teaching method but also relate to individual student behavior (Astin, 1984). The foundation of the engagement construct rests upon this principle. Because of this, engagement experts have claimed that current conceptualizations of engagement closely resemble Astin’s theory (Astin, 1984; Pascarella & Seifert, 2010; Trowler, 2010).  Doubtless, Astin’s research was instrumental in drawing greater attention to relationships between student involvement and learning (Kuh, 2009).

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Robert Pace’s series of research on quality of effort also played a critical role in developing and drawing attention to the engagement construct. In 1978, Pace received a grant to study how the quality of effort may help predict and explain student learning and development (Pace, 1984).  Pace spoke of educational experiences in two parts: products and processes. Products, referring to the things gained from the educational experience, include things such as knowledge gained, new perspectives, and greater skills (Pace, 1984). Processes are the means by which students attain products. In reference to processes Pace stated,

“In thinking about how we evaluate educational programs it seemed to me that the quality of the educational experience or process should somehow be taken into account. We need ways to measure the quality of the process as well as the quality of the product.”  (Pace, 1984, 5)

This statement highlights concepts that appear relatively similar to those currently discussed in engagement research. Educational quality is often judged by what skills, abilities or mindsets students glean from their experience. Additionally, and similar to Pace’s thoughts, the outcomes of these experiences are dependent upon the degree with which they engage the experience.

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Conceptualizing Engagement

Conceptualizations of engagement are plentiful, and settling on a primary definition has been a challenge for researchers (Appleton, et al., 2008; Trowler, 2010). Perhaps the greatest difficulty has been the profusion of the “Jingle Jangle” fallacy in engagement research (Appleton, et al., 2008; Reschly & Christenson, 2012). The Jingle Jangle fallacy refers to either the utilization of two or more terms to describe the same construct (i.e., the “jingle”), or the use of one term to describe two or more constructs (i.e., the “jangle”).  This can make navigating and understanding the engagement literature typically incorporates difficult. For example, terms, such as student engagement, academic engagement, school engagement, and engagement with school all describe the same construct (Finn & Zimmer, 2012). This can make navigating and understanding the engagement literature difficult for researchers. Despite this confusion, most researchers rely upon definitions provided by influential experts in engagement, such as George Kuh, Ernst Pascarella, and Peter Ewell (Axelson & Flick, 2011; Junco, Heibergert & Loken, 2010).

In contrast to the inconsistencies within the engagement research jargon, researchers have accepted embraced a set of core characteristics common to the general conceptualization of engagement.  (Appleton, Christenson, Furlong, 2008). First, engagement exists on a continuous scale ranging from fully engaged to disengagement (Appleton, et al., 2008; Reschly & Christenson, 2012; Trowler, 2010). Second, engagement is plastic, capable of changing through intervention or over time (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). Finally, engagement is best represented as a multidimensional or a meta-construct (Appleton, et al., 2008; Fredricks et. al., 2004; Trowler, 2010). With engagement accepted as multidimensional, many models of engagement’s contents have emerged.

In a review of the engagement literature, Fredricks et al., (2004) identified three components of engagement comment in the research: cognitive, behavioral, and affective.  Of these, behavioral engagement is the most common in research (Fredricks et. al., 2004).  Fredricks et al., (2004) described behavioral engagement as educationally meaningful actions of students (e.g., studying, attending class, study abroad). Emotional engagement refers to students’ feelings concerning their educational experience, including class content, teachers, or the institution.  Of the three engagement components, cognitive engagement is less common in the research. Cognitive engagement refers to students’ degree of investment in their educational experiences, including the amount of effort they are willing to put into comprehending and mastering the material (Fredricks et al., 2004). Notably popular, Fredricks’ et al., three component model is one of the more commonly cited structures for engagement as a meta-construct.

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Other models of engagement are often similar to Fredricks et al., Appleton et al., (2006) contended that engagement is better described using four components: Academic, behavioral, cognitive, and psychological. Many models such as this exist, each structure representing different ways to categorize the same behaviors. That is, most models do not differ in what content is accepted as engagement but rather in how it is organized. One exception to this is an argument for the inclusion of institutional contributions to engagement (Harper & Quaye, 2009). Researchers argued that student engagement is a function of factors dependent upon students (i.e., their willingness to engage) as well as the resources and opportunities the institution provides for engagement (Axelson & Flick, 2011; Harper & Quaye, 2009; Kuh, 2009). In other words, engagement depends upon both the students’ intrinsic will to engage and the opportunities for students’ to be engaged provided by the institution (Pace, 1984; Trowler, 2010). Thus criticisms of the three component model were of neglect to include institutional influences and over emphasis on student responsibility (Harper & Quaye, 2009; Kuh; 2009). Indeed, it seems reasonable that both student and institutional data would be needed to explain student engagement.

Both components are found in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) definition of engagement. As will be discussed later, the NSSE was designed using decades of research and is the leading measure of engagement in the United States. As such, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) has one of the most widely accepted definitions of engagement. The NSSE describes engagement as a multi-dimensional construct and as an interplay between institutional and individual characteristics (Kuh 2001; 2003).

“Student engagement represents two critical features of collegiate quality. The first is the amount of time and effort students put into their studies and other educationally purposeful activities. The second is how the institution deploys its resources and organizes the curriculum and other learning opportunities to get students to participate in activities that decades of research studies show are linked to student learning.” (“About NSSE” 2017)

Because of its apparent alignment with the research and my use of NSSE in this study, I have chosen to adopt this definition of engagement. While the use of other definitions is common in engagement research I will not describe these in any depth. Examples can be found in Table X. and a more in-depth review is available from Trowler (2010) and Axelson & Flick (2011).

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