Student Engagement in Higher Education: Conceptualizations, Measurement, and Research

Researchers have suggested that student engagement in the college and university learning environment is an important contributor to student learning, achievement, and outcomes. Higher education scholars have developed measures to assess students’ engagement in higher education, and they have examined experiences that contribute to student engagement, as well as whether student engagement leads to important college outcomes such as college persistence, academic achievement, cognitive development, and other affective outcomes. This chapter considers how student engagement has been conceptualized and measured by researchers and discusses research on student engagement in higher education, focusing on four sets of factors – precursors to student engagement, facilitators of student engagement, indicators of student engagement, and outcomes of student engagement. This chapter also offers recommendations for institutional policy and practice related to student engagement, as well as directions for future research focused on student engagement.