Este E-Book reúne um conjunto de investigações apresentadas no “I Congresso Internacional Envolvimento dos Alunos na Escola: Perspetivas da Psicologia e Educação” (ICIEAE), organizado no âmbito do “Projeto PTDC/CPE-CED/114362/2009 - Envolvimento dos Alunos na Escola: Diferenciação e Promoção” (EAE-DP), financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).Framework: Students Engagement in School (SES) has been occupying a central
position in the discussions regarding factors of academic success and school
dropout. A considerable amount of literature on this concept exists. Although its
conceptualization varies according to authors and the theoretical framework they
have adopted, there is a wide agreement concerning its multidimensional nature. Key
dimensions of students engagement in school (i.e., cognitive, affective, behavioral
and, more recently, agentic) have been described and empirically validated. Purpose:This study aimed to review the literature on assessment of students engagement in
school through a focus on the psychometric characteristics of several instruments.
Methodology: The present paper focuses on self-report measures which are
multidimensional. These instruments were validated on heterogeneous samples.
Results: Twelve self-report measures designed to measure the students engagement
in school were referred, along with four other instruments targeting teachers’
perspective as well as observational measures. Conclusions: Various measures
stem from different theoretical perspectives and were developed with different types
of samples. Conceptual variations often expressed in the number of dimensions
considered and in items content variability suggest limitations when comparing
psychometric indings of different studies. Suggestions: Studies on instruments
we reviewed in the present paper suggest the need for further research on the
multidimensionality of school engagement construct. Research should go beyond
investigation of differential and predictive validity of measures. Thus, there is little
evidence regarding the validity of engagement in school measures, when investigation
of effects of specific intervention programs is aimed or validity of their use in quasiexperimental
studies with useful applications in the field of education
