Student engagement in Higher Education, age and parental education level

Filomena Covas,Feliciano Henriques Veiga

doi:10.1590/1982-0275202138e200020

Abstract

Abstract Within the scope of socio-cognitive theories, student engagement in school has been studied as a multidimensional construct. A four-dimensional perspective was adopted, with the dimensions: affective, cognitive, behavioural and agentic. The objective, to analyse how the variables age and parental education relate to student engagement in school. The sample consisted of 715 Portuguese public Higher Education students from the Lisbon area. The data was collected through an online survey, which included the Student Engagement in School: a Four-Dimensional Scale – Higher Education Version. Data analysis not only revealed that students of age 26 or older scored considerably higher results in engagement than younger colleagues, but also highlighted significant differences of engagement in the affective, behavioural and agentic dimensions, depending on parental education. The results, while partially corroborating the revised literature, suggest future in-depth studies.

Highlights

No âmbito das teorias sociocognitivas, o envolvimento do aluno na escola tem sido estudado como um constructo multidimensional
The study of Student Engagement at School (SES) has been developed in the context of Higher Education, due to the growing concern with school dropout, which has affected a significant part of students who do not complete their academic courses, and to the fact that studies conducted in a pre-university education context mention that engagement may be an important factor in combatting school dropout (Appleton, Reschly, & Christenson, 2014; Furlong & Christenson, 2008; Veiga, 2013)
Since the data collection was carried out through an online survey and participation was voluntary, the students who responded may have been those who showed greater engagement in school. Another limitation has to do with the use of self-reporting evaluation instruments, as all student answers may be subject to an effect of social desirability

Summary

Introduction

No âmbito das teorias sociocognitivas, o envolvimento do aluno na escola tem sido estudado como um constructo multidimensional. A análise dos dados destacou que estudantes com 26 ou mais anos mostraram resultados no envolvimento significativamente superiores aos colegas mais jovens e salientou diferenças significativas no envolvimento deles nas dimensões afetiva, comportamental e agenciativa em função do nível de escolaridade dos pais. In a recent literature review about the conceptual framework of Higher Education engagement, Kahu (2013) identifies four approaches: the behavioural which centres itself on the study of experiences and behaviours of students; the psychological which studies engagement as an individual internal process; the sociocultural which highlights the influence of contextual factors; and the holistic perspective which seeks to integrate the three aforementioned approaches (Kahu, 2013) In this holistic model, the central process of SES is associated with the affective, cognitive and behavioural dimensions. The most highlighted characteristic of this conceptual model is its network structure, in that its relationships with the influences and the consequences, of the proximal 2 and distant levels, are bi-directional and all of this complex process of interrelations is contextualised in the

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion