Students’ emotional and cognitive engagement as the determinants of well-being and achievement in school

• Students’ emotional and cognitive engagement is highly socially embedded.
• Emotional engagement regulates students’ well-being and cognitive engagement.
• Cognitive engagement was regulated by their sense of belonging with teachers.
• Cognitive engagement was indirectly regulated by the peer group interaction.
• Students’ school achievement was associated with their cognitive engagement.

This study aims to gain a better understanding of the interrelation between students’ emotional and cognitive engagement that is mediated by experienced well-being in school. The main hypothesis was that perceived emotional engagement constructed in the peer group and in teacher–student interaction together with school-related well-being contributes to students’ perceived cognitive engagement and, further, to their school achievement. A total of 170 students from three case study schools were surveyed, and the hypothesis was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results showed that students’ cognitive engagement was highly dependent both on the dynamic interplay between students and the school environment and, more broadly, on the daily pedagogical practices adopted in schools. Moreover, the students’ experience of school-related well-being was a key mediator for emotional and cognitive engagement and, further, contributed to their school achievement. The detected interrelation between student learning and subjective school-related well-being has potentially significant implications for further studies attempting to understand the complexity of the experience of engagement in the multiple social contexts provided by schools. The findings further imply that the focus in developing school pedagogical practices should be the dynamics between students and their learning environment rather than solely the individual or the environment.