Factors affecting student engagement: An analysis on how and why students learn.

Abstract

For the past years, the inception of the Taiwan Higher Education Students Survey (THESS) has gathered much information regarding how students learn. Similarly, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) of the United States have long shown that students’ engagement have contributed to the desired outcomes in college. To better understand the factors that affect students’ learning, an analysis of the THESS \nusing the NSSE construct was accomplished. More specifically within the five effective educational benchmark practices and three educational outcome gains, namely: level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, enriching educational experiences, and supportive campus environment; general education gains, personal social gains, and practical competence gain. A total of 49,609 students were surveyed and data analyzed using the method of Structured Equation Modeling (SEM). Lastly, the study proposes a model of Taiwan student engagement with two mediating factors, namely: future goals and school satisfaction, depicting how and why the students le