Development and Validation of a Student Engagement in Academic Activities Scale

Student engagement in academic activities is the basis of reformist activities by schools for developing instruction. Thus, it is very important to recognize this construct. The purpose of this research was the development and validation of Student Engagement inAcademic Activities Scale (SEAAS). 824 high school Freshman students were selected and responded to the self-report scale. Following the content validation of statements, data preparation, examination of presumptions for conducting of exploratory factor analysis with a principle component method and Promax rotation, cognitive engagement, psychological engagement, academic engagement, and behavioral engagement were extracted as four factors. Moreover, first stage confirmatory factor analysis confirmed these factors and secondary stage of confirmatory factor analysis confirmed placing these factors obtained under concept of student engagement in academic activities. Reliability of this scale obtained via Cronbach alpha coefficient for domains of student engagement in academic activities in range of 0.61 to 0.73 and for total scale 0.85. Also, the reliability of this scale acquired through test-retest for components of student engagement in academic activities in rage of 0.71 to 0.78 and for total scale 0.75. Therefore, the SEAASgrades obtained by the researcher have an appropriate reliability and validity for assessing the student involvement in academic activities.