Student engagement in health professions education: AMEE Guide No. 152

Abstract

This guide aims to support our colleagues to have comprehensive understanding of student engagement in health professions education. Despite the universal agreement about the significance of student engagement, there is lack of uniformity in conceptualizing and operationalizing this emerging construct. We review the theoretical basis explaining student engagement from three main perspectives: behavioral, psychological, and socio-cultural. In addition, we propose a contemporary and comprehensive framework for the student engagement in higher education, which is applicable to health professions education contexts. Drawing from this framework, we explain the conceptualization of the construct and its preceding factors, mediators, dimensions, spheres, and outcomes of student engagement. The proposed framework introduces student ‘engagement through partnerships’ as a novel component compared with the existing models of student engagement in higher education. This way, we are proposing a mixed model that not only considers the student as a ‘customer’ but also as a ‘partner’ in education. Engagement of students through partnerships include four areas: (1) provision of the education program, (2) scholarly research, (3) governance and quality assurance, and (4) community activities. This guide will provide practical applications on how to improve student engagement in health professions education. Finally, we highlight the current gaps in areas of research in the student engagement literature and suggested plans for future directions. Practice points Student engagement is student investment of time and energy in academic and non-academic experiences that include learning, teaching, research, governance, and community activities. Students are involved in these aspects at the cognitive, affective, behavioral, agentic, and socio-cultural dimensions. Student engagement could be explained by three theoretical perspectives: behavioral, psychological, and socio-cultural. The theoretical framework for student engagement in health professions education consists of five components: (1) antecedents of engagement, which refer to institutional and student factors as well as the interactions (student-student and student-staff), (2) mediators of engagement, which include self-efficacy, motivation, belonging, and reflectivity, (3) engagement dimensions, which refer to the five dimensions of engagement: cognitive, behavioral, emotional, agentic, and socio-cultural, (4) Spheres of engagement, which refer to engagement in own learning and engagement through partnerships, and (5) outcomes of engagement, which are short-term and long-term. Engagement through partnerships includes four main areas: (1) provision of the education program, (2) scholarly research, (3) governance and quality assurance, and (4) community activities. The following measures are necessary to promote student engagement in HPE: (1) promote a culture of community and psychological safety, (2) create a culture of ‘students as partners’, (3) promote the use of active, collaborative learning methods with relevance to future career, and (4) promote the use of technology-enhanced learning.