Improving student engagement: Ten proposals for action

TLDR

Research since the 1980s has examined ways to improve student success in higher education, focusing on outcomes such as retention, completion, employability, and on student engagement as a key factor for success. The article synthesizes research on student engagement to propose ways to enhance it. The authors first synthesize 93 studies from ten countries to create a conceptual organizer of student engagement comprising motivation, teacher‑student transactions, institutional support, and active citizenship, and then distill these perspectives into ten propositions for improving engagement. The study notes limitations of the organizer and suggests a more integrated approach to student engagement.

Abstract

Since the 1980s an extensive research literature has investigated how to improve student success in higher education focusing on student outcomes such as retention, completion and employability. A parallel research programme has focused on how students engage with their studies and what they, institutions and educators can do to enhance their engagement, and hence success. This article reports on two syntheses of research literature on student engagement and how this can be enhanced. It first synthesizes 93 research studies from ten countries to develop a conceptual organizer for student engagement that consists of four perspectives identified in the research: student motivation; transactions between teachers and students; institutional support; and engagement for active citizenship. Secondly, the article synthesizes findings from these perspectives as ten propositions for improving student engagement in higher education. It concludes by identifying some limitations with the conceptual organizer and one suggestion for developing a more integrated approach to student engagement.