Students’ Perspectives on Engagement, Learning, and Pedagogy: Self-Evaluations of University Students in Spain

Abstract

Student engagement in higher education has been studied from different theoretical perspectives and in different countries. Current issues include both concerns regarding students’ attitudes and ambivalence and, in addition, the definition of the concept of student engagement and how various pedagogical approaches may contribute to contrasting definitions. The present study thematically analyzed self-evaluations of 46 students attending two pedagogy courses of the University of Barcelona; both courses included lectures and discussions. Special attention was given to how participants described their engagement and related it to their learning, the teacher’s pedagogy, and the course content. Different forms of engagement emerged, both with the lecture and discussion sessions of the classes, that suggest some aspects of student engagement may (a) be invisible to the teacher and (b) follow an independent decision-making process that may favor passing over learning.