What Works. The Work Program: CORE ISSUES 5
Source: Australian Government, Department of Education, Science and Training
Summary: Student Engagement: Attendance, Participation and Belonging
Three of these four terms — engagement, attendance, and participation — have a high profile in discussions of improving educational outcomes for Indigenous students. They sometimes have indistinct boundaries with attendance being used as a synonym for participation for example, and engagement ranging in people’s minds from meaning concentrated effort in the classroom to a description of very broad types of involvement.
At ground level, participation probably means things like joining in a sports carnival or providing an item at a concert, whereas from a technical perspective it is often related to grade retention and suspension statistics. Belonging brings a different flavour to the discussion and is included here for reasons explained overleaf. But taken together they provide a description of how we want our students to be — immersed constructively and enthusiastically in the developmental experiences and products that schooling provides.