Student Engagement in Assessments: What Students and Teachers Find Engaging

The goal of this study is to provide guidance to educators, assessment developers, and policymakers on how to increase student engagement in performance-based assessments. This report takes up this challenge by examining how students and teachers conceptualize and recognize engagement features in performance-based tasks. To provide theoretical grounding for this study, the paper begins by defining student engagement as a combination of the following concepts: relevance, authenticity, autonomy, collaboration, higher order thinking skills, and self-assessment. Next, based on interviews of study participants, the report ends with what qualities students and teachers perceive to be engaging in assessments.