EUROPEAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

The importance of emotional engagement of students enrolled in

intermediate VET .

Author(s):Inmaculada Sureda, Francesca Salva (presenting), Merce Morey, Bartomeu Mut (presenting), Antoni Cerdà, Oscar
Mas

Conference:ECER 2016, Leading Education: The Distinct Contributions of Educational Research and Researchers

Network:02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:Paper

Session Information
02 SES 08 A, Individual Aspects of Learning and Socialization at the Workplace

Paper Session

Time:2016-08-25
09:00-10:30

Room:Vet-Theatre 116

Chair:Johanna Lahja Lasonen

Contribution
The importance of emotional engagement of students enrolled in intermediate VET .

Questions and Theoretical Approach (600 words)

In this paper we analyze the emotional engagement of students in their first course of Intermediate VET in Spain.

This analysis is done in the context of a longitudinal study on itineraries of success and abandonment of pupils enrolled in
intermediate VET programs in the education system in Spain, which aims to provide evidence on a scientific basis and
intervention, that contribute to improving knowledge of the Vocational Training Spanish educational system, and, more
specifically, to prevent and correct the serious problem of school dropouts at these levels.

The following analysis is a first phase of the longitudinal study. At this phase, we analyze the emotional engagement of all
students coursing their first year; and in the subsequent phases, we will analyze the relationship between emotional
engagement at the beginning of the vocational intermediate year and the characteristics of the itineraries carried out
(success-dropout).
In this study the global model used for understanding the abandonment and educational success in vocational training lies in
the concept of “Student Engagement”. According to Reschly & Christenson (2012), the concept of "student engagement" is
divided into four areas of study: emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and academic.

In this case, our goal is to present what variables determine the dimension of emotional engagement, and what results are
expected, according to the theory.
The construct of emotional engagement " is of great importance in the investigation according to different studies
confirming its decisive role in the prevention of dropout, risk behavior dampers (Li, Lynch, Kalvin, Liu, & Lerner, 2011),
flattering and school activity participation, perseverance in the task (Goodenow, 1993), school motivation (Roeser, Eccles, &
Sameroff, 1998) and ultimately, academic linkage (Anderson, Christeson, Sinclair, & Lehr, 2004).

The emotional engagement concept is defined from diverse perspectives: positive affective reactions in the classroom, such
as enjoyment and interest and personal identification and belonging (González, 2010).

Some scales are not always appropriate to measure the emotional dimension. Firstly, items that tap behavioural
engagement and emotional engagement are often combined in a single scale, as in the case of The Rochester Assessment
Package for School (RAPS, Wellborn & Connell, 1987). Secondly, the survey items do not specify the source of the emotions.
Thirdly, the measures of emotional engagement tend to be more general than related constructs such as interest and value
(Frederick, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004).

A reference tool for the development of our questionnaire to evaluate the emotional dimension is the SEI; Student
Engagement Instrument (Appleton, Christenson, Kim, & Reschly, 2006). In addition, we have completed measures of
parental support through TEDP (Janosz; Archambault; Lacroix & Lévesque, 2007), measuring the perception of parental
control that the student has.

The SEI is an instrument that serves the theoretical model presented, and recent studies provide validity and psychometric
reliability when applied to a sample of primary and secondary or higher education (Appleton, et al, 2006; Betts, Appleton,
Reschly, Christenson, & Huebner, 2010).

Method

Methodology (400 words)

- Questionnaire and sample

The study will use a representative sample of students who started their training in the education intermediate VET, during
the course 2015-16 in Palma de Mallorca. The participants are 828 students from this level.
The SEI; Student Engagement Instrument used (Appleton, Christenson, Kim, & Reschly, 2006), adapted to the Spanish
context, specifies the variables: relationships with teachers (9 items) such as “My teachers are there for me when I need
them” or “ Adults at my school listen to the students”; peer relationships (5 items) such as “I have some friends at school”
or “Other students here care about me” and family support for learning (4 items) such as “My family/guardians are there for
me when I need them” or “When something good happens at school, my family/guardians want to know about it”. Also, we
have used the TEDP (Janosz, et al., 2007) to understand how the students perceive parental control with nine items that
faced students with issues such as “My parents would agree if I left school” or “If I have a problem at school, I would tend to
talk about it with my parents”.
The students indicate their level of agreement with each item, using a 4-point scale, from 1 = strongly agree to 4 = strongly
disagree. Previous research presented internal consistency of the SEI through estimates ranging between .72 -.88 in the four
subtypes of scales (Appleton et al., 2006). And the internal consistency of the subscale perception of parental control (Janosz
et al., 2007) through estimates ranging between .70 -.74.
The questionnaire included sociodemographic characteristics of the participating students and their families

Expected Outcomes

Expected outcomes (300 words)

Our analysis suggests that the dimension of emotional engagement such as social support from teachers, parents and peers
play an important role in reducing the declines in school compliance, encouraging a sense of school identification, as well as
the subjective valuing of learning at school, and also, a lot of indicators in relation to behavioural and cognitive engagement.
More specifically, students who perceive social support of teachers tend to respond to these expectations, and exhibit less
undisciplined behaviour; focusing towards academic achievements and tasks of school participation with low stress (Stipek,
2002).
Social support from peers promotes the feeling of acceptance within the group and within the school community, while
enmities characterized by negative feelings favor rivalry, aggressive or defensive behaviour, and increase disengagement
from the school context (Kurdek & Sinclair, 2000).

Finally, family support regarding homework favours greater involvement of students in the school context and a decrease in
problematic behavior by the latter. (Wang, Dishion, Stormshak, & Willett, 2011).

Our analysis will allow us to study what relationships exists between the social support from peers, teachers and parents.
Furthermore, to get acquainted with how parental control and support is involved with the social support from peers and
teachers, completing the analysis with the variables taken into consideration such as gender, professional families, and
cultural background of students enrolled in intermediate VET in Spain.
This longitudinal study will allow to analyze, more late, the relationships between emotional engagement and other
dimensions as cognitive engagement and behavior engagement.

References

References (400 words)

Anderson, A. R., Christenson, S. L., Sinclair, M. F., & Lehr, C. a. (2004). Check & Connect: The importance of relationships for
promoting engagement with school. Journal of School Psychology, 42(2), 95–113.
Appleton, J. J., Christenson, S. L., Kim, D., & Reschly, A. L. (2006). Measuring cognitive and psychological engagement:
Validation of the Student Engagement Instrument. Journal of School Psychology, 44(5), 427–445.
Betts, J; Appleton, J; Reschly, A; Christenson, S; Huebner, E.S. (2010). A study of the factorial invariance of the student
engagement instrument (SEI): Results from middle and high school students. School Psychology Quarterly, 25(2), 84-93.
Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence.
Review of Educational Research, 74, 59–10.
González, M.T. (2010). El alumno ante la escuela y su propio aprendizaje: algunas líneas de investigación en torno al
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Janosz, M.; Archambault, I.; Lacroix, M. & Lévesque, J. (2007). Trousse d’évaluation des décrocheurs potentiels (TEDP) :
Manuel d’utilisation. Montréal : Groupe de recherche sur les environnements scolaires. Université de Montréal.
Kurdek, L. A., & Sinclair, R. J. (2000). Psychological, family, and peer predictors of academic outcomes in first- through fifth-
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Author Information
Inmaculada Sureda
University Balearic Island, Spain

Francesca Salva (presenting)

University Balearic Island, Spain

Merce Morey
University Balearic Island, Spain

Bartomeu Mut (presenting)

University Balearic Island, Spain

Antoni Cerdà
University Balearic Island, Spain

Oscar Mas
Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona