Abstract
Student engagement is an important contributor to school success, yet high school students routinely describe themselves as
disengaged. Identifying factors that alter (increase) engagement is a key aspect of improving support for student achievement.
This study investigated students’ perceptions of autonomy, teacher connection, and academic competence as predictors of changes
in student engagement within the classroom from the start to the end of a course. Participants were 578 (58% female) diverse
(67.8% White, 25.2% African American, 5.1% Hispanic, 1.2% Asian American) high school students from 34 classrooms who provided
questionnaire data both at the start and the end of a single course. Novel results from a cross-lagged model demonstrated
that students who perceived their classrooms as allowing and encouraging their own autonomy in the first few weeks increased
their engagement throughout the course, rather than the typical decline in engagement that was demonstrated by students in
other classrooms. This finding is unique in that it extended to both students’ perceptions of engagement and observations
of student engagement, suggesting a fairly robust pattern. The pertinence of this finding to adolescent developmental needs
and its relationship to educational practice is discussed.
disengaged. Identifying factors that alter (increase) engagement is a key aspect of improving support for student achievement.
This study investigated students’ perceptions of autonomy, teacher connection, and academic competence as predictors of changes
in student engagement within the classroom from the start to the end of a course. Participants were 578 (58% female) diverse
(67.8% White, 25.2% African American, 5.1% Hispanic, 1.2% Asian American) high school students from 34 classrooms who provided
questionnaire data both at the start and the end of a single course. Novel results from a cross-lagged model demonstrated
that students who perceived their classrooms as allowing and encouraging their own autonomy in the first few weeks increased
their engagement throughout the course, rather than the typical decline in engagement that was demonstrated by students in
other classrooms. This finding is unique in that it extended to both students’ perceptions of engagement and observations
of student engagement, suggesting a fairly robust pattern. The pertinence of this finding to adolescent developmental needs
and its relationship to educational practice is discussed.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Category Empirical Research
- Pages 1-11
- DOI 10.1007/s10964-011-9739-2
- Authors
- Christopher A. Hafen, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
- Joseph P. Allen, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
- Amori Yee Mikami, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Anne Gregory, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA
- Bridget Hamre, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
- Robert C. Pianta, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
- Journal Journal of Youth and Adolescence
- Online ISSN 1573-6601
- Print ISSN 0047-2891