Secondary teachers’ beliefs about the importance of teaching strategies that support behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement in the classroom

The current study investigates secondary teachers’ understandings of student engagement in relation to three dimensions (behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement). It is posited that there exists an order in which dimensions of engagement must develop in order to facilitate students’ engagement in the classroom. However, there is a lack of research exploring the understandings of the very people who create students’ learning environment: teachers. The aim of the current paper is to establish if teachers believe that one dimension exists as a catalyst for the other dimensions of engagement in student learning. This article reports on novel qualitative findings from interviews with secondary teachers (n = 11). Findings indicated that teachers do consider students’ behavioural or emotional or cognitive engagement as a precursor, or catalyst, to other dimensions of engagement. However, there is not an agreed order, and some teachers’ approaches are influenced by contextual considerations. These findings contribute new insights to existing research into teachers’ understandings and implementation of strategies to support student engagement in learning.