Engaging with engagement in learning chemistry: a guiding note about a multidimensional construct

Abstract

Student engagement in learning chemistry is arguably a central premise of chemistry education. Most teachers and researchers refer broadly to ‘engagement’ at some point during their work, usually as part of instructional design, reflective classroom practice, measurement of learning outcomes or a combination of these. In fact, as a multidimensional construct, learner engagement for any individual is observed to be fluid and malleable and hence is very difficult to capture. Many readers of our journal may seek to understand an author's position on engagement so that they can connect reported findings to their own contexts. To facilitate this process, in this Editorial article, I briefly visit the basis of the multiple facets of ‘engagement’ aiming to support authors in framing their work on learner engagement more explicitly. I encourage authors to establish and communicate their theoretical perspective and the methodological lens that they have applied in their chemistry education research and practice involving engagement.