Proposal to the PISA of a New Scale of Students' Engagement in School

Abstract

Problem Statement: The question of students' engagement in schools has emerged as a powerful issue in educational context. The lack of assessment instruments, with studied psychometric characteristics, has constituted a problem. Purpose of Study: This study presents the elaboration of a new student engagement in school scale, including items of the “Engagement Scale” used in PISA 2000 and items in the “SES” adapted for Portugal (Veiga, Pavlovic, Garcia & Ochoa, 2010). Research Methods: The psychometric qualities — internal consistency and the external validity — were analyzed. The analysis allowed us to find a new scale that, surpassing the one-dimensionality of the scale of engagement used in PISA, has acceptable levels of reliability. In the study of external validity, the results in the “Student Engagement in School Scale, Version 2 (SES-V2)’, appeared partially related to the academic achievement across disciplines. Findings: The results permitted us to find that the SES-V2, besides going beyond the lack of scale items used in PISA 2000, presents psychometric qualities that can be used in research and psychoeducational practice, to assess the multidimensional students' engagement in school. Conclusions: The future use of the SES-V2 in the PISA studies is considered and proposed. This scale may be a useful opportunity for teachers, psychologists and other education professionals. Recommendations : to deepen the study of multidimensionality of students' engagement in schools, including new items, as well as extending the external validity of the affective dimension of engagement, can constitute important fields of research.