The Serial Multiple Mediator Role of Emotion Regulation and School Resilience Between Cognitive Flexibility and School Engagement

Assessing Student Engagement in School: Development and Validation of a Four-dimensional Scale

Student engagement in school is a multidimensional construct that includes behavioral, emotional, and cognitive components. This construct, alongside numerous other factors, is associated with a range of positive developmental outcomes that can serve to prevent various behavioral problems. Accordingly, contemporary research focuses on identifying factors that may enhance student engagement in school. One of the most important among these factors are the techniques the teachers use to instil and maintain discipline. The primary aim of this research is to examine the relationship between these disciplinary techniques and the level of student engagement in school activities. The sample consisted of 860 students of both genders from six secondary schools in Belgrade. Data collection used two scales: the Student Engagement Scale and the Scale of Positive and Punitive Disciplinary Techniques, which are part of the comprehensive Delaware School Climate Survey. The findings indicate that the level of student engagement in school varies depending on the disciplinary techniques that students perceive teachers are using. Specifically, a strong correlation was found between the perception of positive disciplinary techniques and higher levels of student engagement, while a somewhat weaker correlation was identified between punitive disciplinary techniques and lower levels of engagement. Furthermore, disciplinary techniques were identified as significant predictors of student engagement in school. Based on these findings, recommendations for improving the level of student engagement in school activities are provided in the conclusion, particularly for the purpose of preventing student behavioral problems.

As students' engagement is a crucial component of their learning process, it is important to understand the factors that influence it. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused prolonged school closures and a shift to online learning, leading to learning loss. Student temperament and teacher-student relationships have been identified as two key factors that affect the quality of student engagement. This research aimed to examine the relationship between student temperament, teacher-student relationships, and student engagement in primary schools. The study employed a quantitative approach, using three questionnaires to collect data from 351 lower primary students selected through random sampling techniques. The analysis results showed that the respondents demonstrated moderate level of overall student temperament and high level of teacher-student relationship. The study results showed a weak positive correlation between student temperament and student engagement (r = 0.243, p < 0.01). Meanwhile, the study found a strong positive correlation between teacher-student relationship and student engagement (r = 0.740, p < 0.01). The findings indicate that teacher-student relationship is a much stronger predictor of student engagement in primary school, as compared to student temperament. One of the key implications of this study is that teachers can now better understand the significance of building positive teacher-student relationship in increasing the level of quality student engagement in schools.

A large body of research has reported a positive relation between participation in extracurricular activities (ECA) and improved academic performance, social competence, and school engagement. This study explored the relation between ECA, social competence, and school engagement for students with and at risk of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Specifically, the study addressed three research questions: (a) Is there a relation between participation in ECA and high school students with EBD’s social competence and school engagement? (b) Is the relation moderated by EBD status, race, gender, or special education status? And, (c) is there a direct link between participation in ECA and students’ social competence and school engagement for youth with EBD? Eighty students with EBD and 21 typically developing students were included based on their participation in a larger study examining interventions for U.S. high school students with EBD. Participants were administered a battery of assessments at the end of the school year measuring ECA participation, social competence, and school engagement. We used regression and instrumental variable analyses to address the research questions. Results indicated statistically significant, positive relations between participation in ECA, social competence, and school engagement. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Research on psychosocial development and its relation with school is key for adolescent students’ well-being. This study aims to complement existing research by understanding how adolescents‘ psychosocial development and student engagement in school differ according to age and gender. Participants were 708 students in early and late adolescence, including girls and boys. The study used a short version of Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages Inventory and the Student Engagement in School Four-Dimensional Scale. Results showed a significant decline from early to late adolescence for psychosocial trust and identity and all dimensions of student engagement in school. They also stressed the differences between girls and boys, which persisted from early to late adolescence. The results underlined that schools’ difficulty in addressing gender stereotypes and student engagement decreased. These findings challenge schools to go beyond academics and offer specific directions for enhancing adolescents’ psychosocial development and engagement in school.

The Impact of a Cooperative Method Embedded in a Writing Strategy Instructional Program on Student Engagement in School

Background. The problem of school engagement remains relevant due to its high importance in ensuring academic success, developing the skills, knowledge, and social capital necessary for adolescents in their successful transition into adulthood. Objectives. The presented article summarises the results of empirical studies concerning the problem of differential foundations of conscious self-regulation and school engagement as resources for academic performance in middle and high school. Study Participants. The empirical studies were carried out on large-scale cross-sectional (more than 1000 students) and longitudinal (more than 200 students) samples using modern valid and reliable instruments. Methods. The research methodology included the comprehensive application of the resource and differential-typological approaches to analyse the meta-resource role of conscious self-regulation in relation to the differential features of the school engagement within the multifactorial system of psychological resources to students’ academic success. Results. The results of the conducted studies convincingly demonstrate the prognostic and resource role of conscious self-regulation both in the establishment of the school engagement profile, and in ensuring individual-typological trajectories of engagement during critical periods of schooling. The features of the relationship between subjective well-being, conscious self-regulation and school engagement in secondary school students were revealed. For the first time, regulatory mechanisms for maintaining school engagement in students of different age are shown. Conclusions. The obtained results contribute to the development of scientific ideas about the meta-resource role of conscious self-regulation. The practical significance of the results is substantiated. The results can be applied in the development of individual educational trajectories that take into account the typological characteristics of students, which will optimise educational activities and increase their effectiveness in different periods of school education.

Providing high-quality teaching practices is central to promote student engagement in school. High quality teaching is even more important in schools located in low socioeconomic neighborhoods, where a larger proportion of children present more important academic difficulties and lower classroom behavioural, affective, and cognitive engagement. The Self-System Model of Motivational Development posits that learner engagement is favored when teachers structure classroom activity, are involved with students, and support their autonomy. How these dimensions interact to create effective classroom contexts that foster student engagement remains less documented. The goal of the present study was to test additive and combined (interactive) multilevel longitudinal associations between teacher structure, autonomy-support, and involvement on students behavioral, affective, and cognitive engagement across one school year. Based on a sample of 696 low SES elementary school students, results of our path analysis revealed that teacher involvement and autonomy-support contributed to various dimensions of classroom engagement. Besides, structure was not directly to this outcome. Yet, a combined use of autonomy-support and structure or autonomy-support and involvement was associated with higher behavioral engagement among low-SES children. These results suggest that teacher practices cannot be interpreted in isolation as they add up and interact to contribute to elementary school student academic experience.

A comprehensive understanding of the contextual factors that are linked to student engagement requires research that includes cross-cultural perspectives. This study investigated how student engagement in school is associated with grade, gender, and contextual factors across 12 countries. It also investigated whether these associations vary across countries with different levels of individualism and socio-economic development. The participants were 3,420 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students from Austria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The participants completed a questionnaire to report their engagement in school, the instructional practices they experienced, and the support they received from teachers, peers, and parents. Hierarchical linear modelling was used to examine the effects at both student and country levels. The results across countries revealed a decline in student engagement from Grade 7 to Grade 9, with girls reporting higher engagement than boys. These trends did not vary across the 12 countries according to the Human Development Index and Hofstede's Individualism Index. Most of the contextual factors (instructional practices, teacher support, and parent support) were positively associated with student engagement. With the exception that parent support had a stronger association with student engagement in countries with higher collectivism, most of the associations between the contextual factors and student engagement did not vary across countries. The results indicate both cultural universality and specificity regarding contextual factors associated with student engagement in school. They illustrate the advantages of integrating etic and emic approaches in cross-cultural investigations.

O impacto de um método cooperativo associado a um programa de ensino de estratégias de escrita no envolvimento dos alunos na escola

Students’ high academic achievement, positive peer relationship, and regular attendance to school may affect their school engagement. Many researches can be found in the literature which introduce that students who have high school engagement continue their lives as happier and more successful individuals. The aim of this study is to test the correlation of school engagement of High School students with absenteeism, academic achievement, peer relationships and fear of failure variables by regression analysis. Study group of this research consists of 269 (52.2%) girls and 246 (47.8%) boys, 515 students in total who study at High Schools in Ankara during 2014-2015 academic year. Data were collected through School Engagement Scale which was developed by Arastaman (2006), Fear of Failure Scale which was developed by Kandemir (2012), Peer Relationships Scale which was developed by Bukowski, Hoza and Bolvin (1994) and was adapted in Turkish by Atik, Çoban, Çok, Doğan and Kahraman (2014), and Personal Information Form which was developed by the researchers of this study. The data of this descriptive study was tested by multiple hierarchic regression analysis. SPSS was used for analysis. According to findings obtained; school engagement is predicted meaningfully by absenteeism and peer relationships variables, but it is not predicted by academic achievement and fear of failure variables. Findings were discussed under the light of related literature and suggestions were presented.

The main aim of the study is to examine the relationship between the secondary school students’ perceptions of the school’s moral atmosphere and their engagement with school. The School Engagement Scale and School Moral Atmosphere Scale were applied to 872 students attending the secondary schools in the 2016-2017 academic year. The study revealed that the school engagement levels showed a significant difference in favor of female students in terms of gender. Based on the multiple regression analysis, it was determined that school moral atmosphere is a significant predictor of school engagement. The results of this study suggest that school moral atmosphere is one of the key determinants of students’ engagement with school, and hence it can be useful to improve school moral atmosphere to increase students’ affective, cognitive, and behavioral engagement.

Student engagement in school is an important construct that has been associated with student success. For the current study, researchers examined the psychometrics of the Student Engagement in Schools Questionnaire (SESQ) and the Teacher Engagement Report Form (TERF-N) of student engagement. The results revealed that both the SESQ and the TERF-N have good internal consistency. The exploratory factor analysis results for the SESQ demonstrated alignment with the theoretically driven development (five factors: Affective Engagement-Liking for Learning, Affective Engagement-Liking for School, Behavioral Engagement-Effort & Persistence, Behavioral Engagement-Extracurricular, and Cognitive Engagement) whereas the results for the TERF-N were more complicated. The items did not load as conceptualized in a 3-factor model, but instead loaded on one, General Engagement factor. Finally, while it may be that teachers viewed a student’s level of engagement as a global construct, the correlations between the measures indicated that they might be used to provide helpful, convergent information obtained from a variety of sources regarding a student’s levels of engagement. Future directions and implications for school psychologists are discussed.

The effectiveness of homework on improving student academic achievement depends on several factors; for example, feedback provided by the teacher (i.e. grading) and student engagement are important moderators in this process. However, the relationships between the types of homework feedback commonly used by teachers and student school engagement have not yet been examined. Anchored in the Self-Determination Theory, this mixed methods sequential explanatory study investigated how five types of teacher homework feedback predict three dimensions of students’ school engagement. The participants included 6th graders (N = 4288) and their mathematics teachers (N = 170). For this investigation, a quantitative phase was run, followed by a qualitative phase. The quantitative data were analyzed using multivariate multilevel regression models. The quantitative data showed positive relationships between five types of feedback and school engagement, albeit with different results at student and class levels. The findings showed small effect sizes. The qualitative data, based on a purposeful sampling, provided further insights regarding the low effect sizes that were found. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Four themes were identified as follows: homework at home and/or at the study center, perceived homework feedback types, school engagement, and school disaffection. Both data sets indicated directions to strengthen the benefits of homework feedback and to maximize students’ learning. This research paper discusses practical implications as well as future research directions.

Student engagement is a strong predictor of academic achievement and overall school success. Much of the research on engagement has focused on the role of personal psychological antecedents and social factors related to one’s teachers. Relatively fewer studies have focused on the influence of one’s classmates. Drawing on prior work on social contagion, this study aimed to examine whether classmates’ engagement influences one’s engagement. Questionnaires were administered to 848 secondary school students nested within 30 classes. Two waves of data were collected seven months apart. Multilevel modelling showed that a student’s Time 2 engagement was positively predicted by his/her classmates’ engagement at Time 1, providing evidence for the social contagion of engagement. These findings held even after controlling for autoregressor effects and other relevant covariates such as demographic factors and achievement goals. Our results suggest that students’ engagement in school is contagious and could be transmitted among classmates.