Cognitive and Emotional Engagement for Students with Severe Intellectual Disability Defined by the Scholars with Expertise in the Field

Although a great deal has been written about the complexities of engagement in learning, this is less true for students with severe intellectual disability. The concept of engagement of these students remains strictly behavioral. Engagement as a complex construct, consisting of behavioral, cognitive, and emotional components, must be addressed as conversations continue to grow around instructional practices for these learners. The current study employed phenomenological analysis to examine the perceptions of 23 scholars with expertise in the field of severe disability related to cognitive and emotional components of engagement. The findings demonstrate that the essence of cognitive engagement involves academic responding, meaningful instruction, and learning outcomes, while the essence of emotional engagement consists of both the factors influencing emotional engagement and the variety of means with which to express it. Across both topics, the challenges with defining and measuring engagement remain.