Core Characteristics of Student Engagement

Abstract

The preceding chapter described how the three dimensions of school structures and school community, student wellbeing and teaching, teachers and leaders are fundamental to the ways in which schools engage young adolescents in learning. As such, they constitute the superordinate layer (Layer 1) of the Young Adolescent Engagement in Learning (YAEL) Model. Couched within these three dimensions is a suite of interconnected sub-dimensions, which represent the core characteristics of the continuum of support that has been shown to most effectively address the needs of all young adolescent learners. The purpose of this chapter is to describe and exemplify these sub-dimensions, which comprise Layer 2 of the Model, and demonstrate their importance to school innovation and improvement agendas for student engagement and retention.