Researching school attitudes: theoretical constructs and possible measurements. Results of a systematic literature review.

Abstract

This study presents the results of a systematic review of empirical research on school attitude, engagement, and school well-being. The systematic review aimed to analyze the theoretical framework of empirical studies that focuses on the investigation of school attitude and related constructs, also to describe the characteristics of the questionnaires used in the selected studies. The affective, cognitive, and behavioural orientations of students and teachers towards schooling can be described by a wide lexicon of terms (i.e. attitude, well-being, or engagement). However, by analysing the different theoretical constructs conceptual similarities can also be identified. This definitional spectrum can be a challenge to empirical research, as well. Those studies were identified in electronic databases (ERIC, EBSCO, Google Scholar) that were published between 1990 and 2020 and reported the results of empirical studies measuring school attitude or related constructs. In the systematic review, N=2042 studies were scanned, and N=21 studies were selected for analysis by defined criterions. The results of the systematic review revealed the variety of constructs in empirical studies. The analysis of school engagement studies highlights that the definitions of engagement differ in the number and content of its components. In the questionnaires designed to measure school attitude and well-being, overlapping dimensions but with different naming can be found. The present study synthesized the most important results of school attitude research. The analyzed empirical studies revealed that supportive learning environments, student-teacher partnership, attractive school image, and the quality of supportive school services have a positive effect on students' attitudes towards schooling.