I am studying student engagement and my focus is on the school factors that accounts for existing levels of student engagement in learning. It is not my intention to use an intervention as part of my design.
Can you give a little more description of your intent? To start, I think it's useful to identify the question in greater detail. Beyond that, what is the current context? What other factors and variables are you interested in measuring?
Thanks for your response. I am interested in the school factors that affect student engagement in learning science at the high school level (grades 9 to 12).
Hi Miguel,
You're addressing a venerable area, but one that is still developing an understanding of the constructs involved. More to the point: your question is rather HUGE. Probably unmanageably huge until you start sorting out some operational definitions (i.e., context, epistemology, theoretical frame). Engagement can be defined in a variety of ways and from a variety of contexts. From one side, engagement looks a little bit like motivation. From another, it looks more like interest. Ultimately, there are a few people who have dedicated their entire career to the study of motivation and engagement. What is 100% clear, each term is reserved and has a specific meaning in the literature (i.e., motivation, engagement, interest).
My experience in this area is more closely aligned with interest as it pertains to the Model of Domain Learning (Alexander, 2003). This is a view of developing expertise, but it discusses situational and enduring interest. In terms of school wide influences, there are a few well-established variables that influence learning. Actually, there is no shortage of examples. You could probably break them into categories. For example, external factors have been shown to be important: socio-economic status, food security, etc. These can mitigate engagement. Other factors stem from policies, school culture, and climate. Although you didn't ask this directly, there is similarly no shortage of individual traits, states, and characteristics that influence engagement.
So, you can see, you actually have an interesting question here.. but presently, it's a little vague. You've uncovered one molecule of water in the tip of the iceberg here.
PG
https://www.education.umd.edu/HDQM/labs/Alexander/ARL/Publications_files/Alexander2003.pdf
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