Student Engagement: What Is It? Why Does It Matter?

This chapter considers the relationships of student engagement with ­academic achievement, graduating from high school, and entering postsecondary schooling. Older and newer models of engagement are described and critiqued, and four common components are identified. Research on the relationship of each component with academic outcomes is reviewed. The main themes are that engagement is essential for learning, that engagement is multifaceted with behavioral and psychological components, that engagement and disengagement are developmental and occur over a period of years, and that student engagement can be modified through school policies and practices to improve the prognoses of students at risk. The chapter concludes with a 13-year longitudinal study that shows the relationships of academic achievement, behavioral and affective engagement, and dropping out of high school.

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Notes

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. Graduate School of Education, The State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA Jeremy D. Finn
2. Department of Elementary Education, St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, NY, 14778-9800, USA Kayla S. Zimmer

1. Jeremy D. Finn

Corresponding author

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

1. Dept. Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, E. River Road 56, Minneapolis, 55455, Minnesota, USA Sandra L. Christenson
2. Dept. Educational Psychology &, Instructional Technology, University of Georgia, Aderhold Hall 325N, Athens, 30602, Georgia, USA Amy L. Reschly
3. Educational Research, New Zealand Council for, Wellington, New Zealand Cathy Wylie

Appendix

Appendix

Fourth Grade

Student Participation Questionnaire

The codes in parentheses indicate the subscale to which the item belongs:

N = Nonparticipatory behavior

The sign (+, −) indicates the direction of scoring. Items marked “−” should be reverse-scored before summing the items in the subscale.

(Items 29–31 are not part of these subscales).

The items in this questionnaire have been combined in different ways for use in different research studies.

This questionnaire is in the public domain and may be used without permission. Notification to the author is requested.

The eighth-grade version of the questionnaire is available from the author upon request.

Fourth Grade

Student Participation Questionnaire

Below are items that describe children’s behavior in school. Please consider the behavior of the student named above over the last 2–3 months. Circle the number that indicates how often the child exhibits the behavior. Please answer every item.