Practical K–12 Application of Multidimensional Student Engagement

• In Event: Student Engagement Across Contexts

Abstract

Objective and Perspective. It is commonly stated across extant literature that student engagement, or “productive involvement in school,” is a powerful predictor to academic success (Authors, 2019; Authors, 2020, p. 1; Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004; Wang, et al., 2017). Although this empirical relationship is often statistically related and integrated in student motivational theories, its practical K12 use is not well documented. To illustrate how engagement can be integrated and employed in K12, this study uses Fredricks and colleagues’ (2019) multidimensional framework of engagement alongside various indicators of student social emotional competencies (SEC) and well-being to help shift, appropriate, and optimally direct school support services. The purpose of this effort was to establish a measurement tool to better capture student engagement, SEC, and well-being for future wide-spread use across all students in the division.

Method and Materials. The sample includes 650 students across all three typical schooling levels (Elem.: 139, MS: 157, HS: 277, NA: 77). These students primarily reported being male (43.3; 12.3 NA) and had similar ethnic make up as the school division for which the data were collected. These data were collected across a two week piloting period during the Fall of the 2019 school year.
School Engagement Scale (Wang, et al., 2019). This scale included 19 items that asked students to rate, on a 5 point Likert-like scale (1 = not at all like me to 5 = very much like me) how engaged they were across the four areas of engagement (behavioral, social, cognitive, emotional).
Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (SSWQ; Renshaw, 2015). This measure included 16 items that assesses students’ joy of learning, school connectedness, educational purpose, and academic efficacy using a 4-point Likert response scale.
Social Emotional Competencies (SEC; Mayer, Wang, & Rich, 2018). This measure captures students’ behaviors and beliefs as they relate to self-management, social awareness, and growth mindset.

Results. A bifactor exploratory structural equation model (bESEM) was estimated and fit the data well. Using latent factor scores from the bESEM model, a latent profile analysis was conducted to examine unique profiles of students. Using the five profiles discovered during enumeration, both SSWQ and SEC scores were assessed between profiles as both predictors and distal outcomes to examine their utility. In line with prior research (Authors, 2019; Authors, 2020) both grade and gender were significant predictors of engagement profiles. An expected alignment between profiles and the SSWQ and SEC scores was found, although growth mindset was highest in the lowest engagement profile.

Significance. Although future use of this measurement set will be more specific to school levels, this initial pilot use demonstrated utility in focusing intervention efforts and understanding the dispersion of vital social emotional and well-being metrics across student engagement profiles. Given the recent migration to more online instruction, the focus on understanding student engagement and well-being in these contexts has increased and is poised to be ever the more helpful is appropriating student supports.

Author

• Morgan DeBusk-Lane, Virginia Commonwealth University