Student Engagement in Tertiary Education

Abstract

The student experience and engagement field is a rare mix of scholars and research on both the psychological theories that enhance student engagement and the everyday institutional and school policies that promote student engagement. It is an undeniably popular field, with practitioners, experts, university and school leaders, policymakers, and students all hoping to understand what they can do to foster engagement practices. This article provides a wide breadth of the historical and current research that has shaped student engagement today. First, it includes general overviews, books, and journals that contribute basic dimensions and theories for understanding the evolution of student engagement. Next is an examination of student engagement assessment practices and multiple perspectives on the ongoing discourse of how researchers and scholars should evaluate student engagement. Following are five key areas for improving student engagement: institutional efforts, the role of teachers, student self-efficacy and self-motivation, pedagogy developments, and finally, the impact of technology on the field of student engagement. Also discussed are the outcomes of student engagement, with sections devoted to academic outcomes, emotional and behavioral outcomes, and the relationship between student engagement and extracurricular activities. Student engagement through the perspectives of those outside the majority—minority students and international students—is then examined. The final section covers the best practices discovered so far within student engagement. An active attempt was made to include scholars from the international community. Although this article focuses on higher education, research on primary and secondary education is also referenced. A rich theoretical literature exists; however, student engagement is invariably an applied phenomenon, and many key studies are policy oriented.