What influences student situational engagement in smart classrooms: Perception of the learning environment and students' motivation

Abstract

Situational engagement plays a critical role in promoting students' academic performance. In a smart classroom environment, this study collected longitudinal real‐time data for 105 college students at a university in central China to investigate the relationship among situational engagement, personal characteristics and learning environment perceptions. Hierarchical linear modelling showed that environmental perception and students' personal factors have different effects on situational engagement. Specifically, (1) social support perceptions, autonomous motivation and controlled motivation have a significant impact on behavioural engagement; (2) perceptions of social and media support, autonomous motivation and controlled motivation have a significant impact on shallow cognitive engagement; and (3) perceptions of teacher and social support, self‐efficacy and autonomous motivation significantly predict deep cognitive and emotional engagement. This study suggests that the effect of the perception regarding advanced technology‐supported learning environments on students' situational engagement is limited, and instructors should pay more attention to improving students' perceptions of teacher and social support, self‐efficacy and autonomous motivation to promote students' situational deep cognitive engagement in smart classrooms. What is already known about this topic Compared with overall engagement, situational engagement fluctuates and changes with time and context. Situational engagement is a product of environmental and personal factors. Few studies have focused on the nature of situational engagement and how environmental and personal factors influence situational engagement in smart classrooms. What the paper adds This study contributes to the existing literature by investigating the critical factors that predict situational engagement, using the experience sampling method in a smart classroom at a Chinese university. Environmental perception, self‐efficacy and students' motivation factors have different effects on situational engagement in a smart classroom. Perceptions of teacher and social support, self‐efficacy and autonomous motivation significantly predict deep cognitive and emotional engagement, while perceptions of media support only have a significant impact on shallow cognitive engagement. Personal factors (controlled and autonomous motivation) moderate the relationship between environmental perception factors and situational engagement. Implications for practice and/or policy Rather than only providing external technology‐rich conditions, instructors should focus more on improving students' perceptions of teacher and social support, self‐efficacy and autonomous motivation in the smart classroom environment. Instructors should promote students' perception of teacher support and their autonomous motivation to enhance their deep cognitive engagement.

Exploring the multidimensional relationships between educational situation perception, teacher support, online learning engagement, and academic self-efficacy in technology-based language learning

“…This study found that educational situation perception significantly correlated with students’ online learning engagement, thus verifying the previous research which highlighted the significance of educational situation perception in promoting students’ perception of online learning environments, sense of participation, learning satisfaction, and positive outcomes ( Saini and Goel, 2019 ; Zhao et al, 2014 ). The findings also confirmed previous researchers’ assertion that educational situation is an accurate representation of the existing state, evolution mechanism and interaction relationship of the entity factors such as human, machine, and environment under the real learning space–time condition, the function of which is to trigger the different dimensions of learning engagement ( Lu et al, 2022 ) and support the learning process ( Xie et al, 2019 ). As such, educational situation perception can help enhance students’ technology-enhanced learning experience and promote trust among group members, an important precondition for computer-supported collaborative learning ( Gerdes, 2010 ).…”

“…Through accurate perception and integration analysis of educational situation in ubiquitous learning environments, precise, timely and actionable information was provided, helping students learn in a meaningful, relevant context ( Plass et al, 2015 ). Following on from this, Lu et al (2022) investigated the relationship among situational engagement, personal characteristics and learning environment perceptions oriented to intelligent learning environments, aiming to realize the dynamic optimization of intelligent learning space by using situational perception technology. On the whole, as education situation perception is the hot topic of the field of intelligent education, some applications of these models/theories are found in underpinning the studies examining the construction of the intelligent learning environment ( Aleven et al, 2017 ), the adaptive learning support service based on situational perception ( Bligh and Crook, 2017 ) and the modeling of learners’ learning behaviors based on situational perception ( De Corte, 2012 ).…”

Relationship between perceived teacher support and learning engagement among adolescents: Mediation role of technology acceptance and learning motivation

“…Previous research has also demonstrated that students' motivation and learning engagement can be considerably boosted by building their relationship with their teachers (Reeve, 2012). When students are supported by their teachers, their motivation to learn is improved and they become more focused on classroom learning activities (Ryan and Patrick, 2001;Boulton et al, 2012;Lu et al, 2022). This may be related to the teacher expectation effect.…”

How a token-based game may elicit the reward prediction error and increase engagement of students in elementary school. A pilot study

“…Student engagement is associated with academic success and seems to foster wellbeing in school ( Upadyaya and Salmela-Aro, 2013 ; Lu et al, 2022 ). In past research it has been defined by the effort that is put in activities that are associated with positive learning outcomes ( Krause and Coates, 2008 ).…”