AUTHOR=Vardal-Ocakli Sermin , Ok Ahmet TITLE=Personal and social facilitators of student engagement: transition into higher education JOURNAL=Frontiers in Education VOLUME=9 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2024.1286867 DOI=10.3389/feduc.2024.1286867 ISSN=2504-284X ABSTRACT=

Facilitating student engagement at all levels of higher education is critical, but since transition-year experiences pave the way for further engagement, it requires more attention. Considering its significance and impact on students’ life–changing decisions and attitudes, this study was designed with a major focus on the personal and social facilitators of engagement. It was conducted with 165 university students, who were both language learners and the transition- year students. In line with a theoretical model, how well personal facilitators would predict the performance of transition-year students and what expectations these students held concerning social facilitators were questioned. The former investigation required the correlational method, whereas the descriptive survey method was preferred for the latter one. The results of analyses indicated that the theory partly validated the significance of personal facilitators, whereas it provided evidence for the facilitative role of social facilitators for transitional year student engagement. Therefore, it was concluded that the more responsive the schools and teachers are to student needs, the more likely students feel engaged.