Student Engagement: What do we know and what should we do?

educational, and demographic science and human development research. Our past
(and current) practices and measures have focused almost entirely on academic
achievement. There is little definitive research on what enhances students’ “capacity
to learn” (Claxton, 2007) or engages them in learning.
There is a need for more empirical and action research that includes the voices of
teachers and students – those most able to implement and benefit from the research.
As we continue to explore this construct, definitions of student engagement seem
increasingly complex and diverse and, in some ways, student engagement continues
to be a misunderstood and misused concept. Certainly, student engagement is a
young, underdeveloped construct, which promises to be open to better clarification
and utilization the more research we can do. As a research area, student engagement
holds the promise to better help students, teachers, educational stakeholders, and
communities. Several educational authors request a halt to the arguing and
speculating, and urge educators to get down to the business of implementing a culture
of learning and genuine student engagement in our classrooms (Gilbert 2007;
Claxton, 2007).
“The test of successful education is not the amount of knowledge that pupils take away
from school, but their appetite to know and their capacity to learn.” Sir Richard
Livingstone, 1941.
Student Engagement – Introduction
Student engagement is primarily and historically about increasing achievement, positive
behaviors, and a sense of belonging in the classroom (Harris, 2008; Willms, Friesen, &
Milton, 2009). As a conceptual idea, student engagement was primarily meant to address
or re-engage/reclaim a minority of disadvantaged at risk students who were dropping out
of high school and to instill a sense of belonging in all students, but primarily students in
middle school and high school.
The majority of research studies reviewed here focused solely on students in Grade 6 and
higher because this is when student engagement drops most dramatically (Willms,
Friesen & Milton, 2009; Willms, 2003). What was once described as a problem with
dropouts in the 1970’s or 1980’s is today described as a major issue of disengagement
among many student populations. As Dunleavy, Milton, & Crawford (2010) report in The
Search for Competence in the 21 st Century:
Recent data capturing the experience of 64,836 middle and secondary students
over three years confirms early findings that a large majority of students begin to
disengage from learning in Grade 6 and continue to do so until Grade 9, where
levels remain consistently low through to Grade 12 (Willms, Friesen and Milton,
2009, pp. 16-29 as cited by Dunleavy, Milton, & Crawford, 2010, p. 3).
Over time, student engagement strategies were further developed and more broadly
implemented as a means of managing classroom behaviors. For example, differentiated
Student Engagement: What do we know and what should we do? 6