Academic Engagement Concept and its Affecting Factors in Medical Education: A Review Study

One of factors influencing student's academic achievement is academic engagement. The aim of this study was to perform a comprehensive investigation on conceptual dimensions of academic engagement and the factors affecting it.

A comprehensive search of literature published during 2001-2014 was performed using Persian and English databases including Magiran, SID, Scopus, and PubMed. As a result 190 texts were obtained. After a close study, 22 papers with the keywords of "student engagement, and academic engagement time" were selected. Selection criteria were the existence of any dimension of the concept of academic engagement and factors affecting it in the paper.

After assessing 22 articles, the dimensions of academic engagement concept and its influencing factors were made clear. Academic engagement consists of the educational, behavioral, cognitive, and psychological dimensions. Factors which affect academic engagement are the education institution’s characteristics, teaching methods, service-based learning, technology and various levels of academic engagement.

Through the recognition of dimensions of academic engagement and by applying factors that influence student's academic engagement the wasting of their time and energy can be prevented, and a valuable work force can be developed. Since university engagement has been less studied in medical sciences in our country, it is recommended that qualitative and quantitative research be performed in this field.