Engagement
Student engagement is among the most studied constructs in education research, yet it is among the least consistently defined. It is variously understood as a behaviour, an emotional state, a cognitive disposition and a social phenomenon, and these dimensions do not always move together.
This collection examines what engagement is, how it is measured, and what the evidence shows about its causes and consequences across secondary schooling.
Student engagement as a mediator of the effects of socio-economic status on academic performance among secondary school students in Australia.
- Tomaszewski, W., Xiang, N., & Western, M.
- 2020
This quantitative study asks a pointed question that most stratification research has overlooked: does student engagement help explain why low-SES students...
Student engagement declines across adolescence: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.
- Symonds, J. E., Guo, J., Tang, X., Upadyaya, K., Yu, J., Vaccaro, N., Guigui, D., Ponce, S., Costello, N., & Salmela-Aro, K.
- 2026
This meta-analysis provides the first quantitative synthesis of how student engagement changes over the course of adolescence, drawing together evidence that...
When students show some initiative: Two experiments on the benefits of greater agentic engagement
- Reeve, J., Jang, H-R., Shin, S. H., Ahn, J. S., Matos, L., Gargurevich, R.
- 2022
This study makes the case for change by demonstrating that agentic engagement can causally improve a supportive learning environment and motivational...
How has the conceptualisation of student agency in higher education evolved? Mapping the literature from 2000-2022
- Torres Castro, U. E.; Pineda-Báez, C.
- 2023
This bibliometric review maps 224 studies on student agency in higher education published between 2000 and 2022, finding that 80% appeared after 2017 —...
Student Engagement and Its Association With Academic Achievement and Subjective Well-Being: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
- Zi Yang Wong, Gregory Arief D. Liem, Melvin Chan, and Jesus Alfonso D. Datu
- 2024
Analysing 137 studies involving over 158,000 participants, this meta-analysis finds that student engagement has large average correlations with both academic...
Student Engagement Declines Across Adolescence: A Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies
- Symonds, J.E.; Guo, J.; Tang, X.; Upadyaya, K.; Yu, J.; Vaccaro, N.; Guigui, D.; Ponce, S.; Costello, N.; Salmela-Aro, K.
- 2026
The largest synthesis of its kind, this meta-analysis draws on 125 longitudinal studies to establish that student engagement declines consistently across...