A Measure of College Student Course Engagement

Student engagement is considered an important predictor of student achievement, but few researchers have attempted to derive a valid and reliable measure of college student engagement in particular courses. In 2 studies, we developed and explored the validity of a measure of student engagement, the Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ). Exploratory factor analysis revealed 4 dimensions of college student engagement that were distinct and reliable: skills engagement, participation/interaction engagement, emotional engagement, and performance engagement. We reported evidence of the convergent and discriminant validity of the measure. In particular, we found relationships between factors on the SCEQ and self-report measures of engagement, endorsement of self-theories, goal preferences, and grades.

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