To follow the trajectories of children's engagement in learning, validated measures of engagement appropriate for different ages and educational contexts are needed. The purpose of this study was to adapt and validate the school engagement questionnaire (Engagement Versus Disaffection with Learning: Teacher Report, EDL) in the Swedish educational context, and to investigate if it assesses the same construct as a measure of engagement used for children of preschool age. After translating the questionnaire to Swedish, cognitive interviews were conducted with six teachers to check for interpretability and relevance of the items. For psychometric validation, teachers of 110 6 to 7-year-old children filled out EDL on two occasions two weeks apart. On the first occasion, they also filled out the Child Engagement Questionnaire, a measure of global engagement intended for children of preschool age. Dimensional structure, convergent validity, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency of EDL were investigated. Factor analysis provided support for differentiating between behavioral and emotional components of school engagement. Measures of school and preschool engagement used in this study correlated highly, which provides support for using them to study the engagement of children as they develop, and their educational contexts change. The subscales of behavioral and emotional engagement showed good test-retest reliability and internal consistency.

Donošenje odluke, osim što reflektira preferencije, na njih i utječe. Metodom "paradigma slobodnog izbora" u mnogim istraživanjima potvrđeno je da donošenje odluke između dvije jednako atraktivne opcije dovodi do toga da preferencije prema odabranoj opciji porastu, a prema neodabranoj se smanje. Do promjene subjektivne vrijednosti opcija dolazi kako bi se smanjila kognitivna disonanca uslijed odluke. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ustanoviti razlikuje li se efekt promjene preferencija uslijed odluke s obzirom na broj jednako atraktivnih opcija ponuđenih u zadatku odlučivanja. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 57 ispitanika. Zadatak im je bio procijeniti poželjnost destinacija za putovanje, odabrati između dvije, četiri ili šest jednako ili različito poželjnih opcija i ponovno procijeniti destinacije. Ustanovilo se da kod biranja između jednako poželjnih opcija odabrane opcije postaju atraktivnije nakon izbora. Što je veći broj ponuđenih opcija, veća je i promjena u procjenama. Atraktivnost neodabranih opcija se nakon izbora smanji. Što je više opcija ponuđeno, promjena u procjenama neodabranih destinacija je manja. Efekt je značajno manji kod odlučivanja između nejednako poželjnih opcija. Nalazi idu u prilog tome da odluke utječu na preferencije.Ključne riječi: promjena preferencija uslijed izbora, paradigma slobodnog izbora, broj opcija

The purpose of this scoping review was to identify studies where young children’s engagement in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings was measured and to investigate conceptualizations and operationalizations of child engagement. The literature search conducted in March 2021 included ERIC, PsychInfo, Scopus and Web of Science databases and it resulted in 5965 articles, of which 286 were included in this review. Eligibility criteria were measurements of child engagement in any formal ECEC setting before starting first grade. Data was extracted about engagement conceptualization, theoretical frameworks, study population, study design, and engagement measurement tools and methods. The results showed variations both in the definitions and in the measurement of child engagement. The most common method of measuring children’s engagement in ECEC was observations by an external observer, followed by teacher surveys. Measures of general child engagement in ECEC have a focus on behavioral aspects of engagement while measures that focus on academic activities are more likely to include additional cognitive and emotional aspects of engagement. Child self-reports were rarely used and only present in measures of academic engagement of young children. About one-third of the identified studies relied on unestablished measures of child engagement. Seventy-seven unique established measures of child engagement were identified.

The factor structure of the measure of school engagement ‘Engagement Versus Disaffection with Learning: Teacher Report’ was investigated in the sample of 360 Swedish 6th graders. Confirmatory factor analyses showed no support for the suggested four-factor structure including behavioural engagement, emotional engagement, behavioural disaffection and emotional disaffection. Exploratory analyses resulted instead in solutions differentiating between indicators of engagement and indicators of emotional problems. A four-factor solution including factors of positive engagement, disengagement, internalized and externalized emotional problems had the best fit. Positive engagement and disengagement factors showed good internal consistency with omega coefficients exceeding 0.95 and are deemed suitable for further use. Several challenges of measuring the complex construct of school engagement are discussed.