Student engagement with school : individual and school-level influences.

Sue Fullarton, ACER

Longitudinal surveys of Australian youth research report ; n.27

Abstract

In this report, which examines the engagement of young people with school, engagement is defined through Finn's taxonomy of engagement or participatory behaviours, which examines students' level of participation in the extracurricular activities offered to them by their schools. Major findings from the investigation show that between-school differences account for almost 9% of the variation in students engagement levels; the overall level of student engagement in the school was a strong predictor of student-level engagement; gender, parents' educational level, student perceptions of school climate, self-concept of ability and intrinsic motivation were all found to have an effect on individual engagement, over and above the influence of whole-school engagement; different predictors were found when analysis was conducted separately for males and females. [Author abstract, ed]