Analysis On Influeneing Faetors Of College Student Engagement Based On NSSE-CHINA

Although the research about the students’ learning engagement could be traced back into the1930s, this concept was formally proposed in the1980s. Since the21stcentury, more and moredomestic scholars have begun to focus on the research in this area.The thesis is devoted to explore the structure of college students’ learning engagement and itsinfluence factors. The study consists of five parts. First, the concept of college students’ learningengagement in this study was defined through the literature review about the definition andconnotation. Secondly, this study used CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) to construct thethree-dimensional structure of college students’learning engagement based on the questionnaires ofone university majored in engineering in Nanjing through the NSSE-CHINA. Thirdly, the status ofthe college students’ learning engagement level in that certain university was analyzed according tothe constructed three-dimensional structure of students’ learning engagement. Fourthly, theinfluence factors of college students’ learning engagement was explored by variance analysis,correlation analysis and regression analysis. And the mechanism of action of the influence factors ofcollege students’learning engagement was explored through the use of Structural Equation Model.Fifthly, the influence factors of college students’ learning engagement were verified and confirmedthrough the qualitative interviews with selective representative college students. The results arepresented as follows:(1) The college students’ learning engagement is three-dimensional, which includes behavioralengagement, cognitive engagement, and emotional engagement. This re-constructedthree-dimensional structure based on NSSE-CHINA questionnaire has good reliability and validityso that it can be used to measure the college students’individual learning engagement.(2) The analysis of the present situation shows that as a whole the college students’ learningengagement lies at a lower level than the average. Their cognitive engagement level is the lowestwhile and their emotional engagement level is the highest. Significant differences exist in gender,grade, census, and discipline of the college students. Generally speaking, the level of female collegestudents’ learning engagement is higher than that of male students. The level rises as the students goto upper class. The level of college students come from city is higher than those come from ruralarea.The level of college students majored in arts is higher than those in science.(3) The analysis suggests that gender, grade, subject, personality traits, family environment, and school environment all have influence on college students’ learning engagement. The degree ofinfluence ranks in the order of school environment, personality traits, grade, family environment,gender, and subject.(4) Personality traits, family environment, school environment all influence the mediatingvariable-the learning engagement and then have indirect positive influence to educational gains.Personality traits, school environment, and learning engagement all have direct influence oneducational gains.(5) The qualitative interviews about the students’ learning engagement level show that themain influence factors are the individual factors, school environment and family environment,which influence their study to the most extent.