Student Engagement: Developing a Conceptual Framework and Survey Instrument

Abstract

Student engagement is considered to be among the better predictors of learning, yet there is growing concern that there is no consensus on the conceptual foundation. The authors propose a conceptualization of student engagement grounded in A. W. Astin's (1984 Astin, A. W. (1984). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. Journal of College Student development, 25, 297–308.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) Student Involvement Theory and W. A. Kahn's (1990 Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 692–724.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) employee engagement research where student engagement is built on four components: emotional engagement, physical engagement, cognitive engagement in class, and cognitive engagement out of class. Using this framework the authors develop and psychometrically test a student engagement survey that can be used by researchers to advance engagement theory and by business schools to monitor continuous improvement.