Samples for Study 1, Study 2, and Study 3.

Student engagement plays a vital role in higher education due to its significant influence on academic outcomes, such as academic achievement and course completion. However, the concept of student engagement is often ambiguously defined, with a lack of distinction between engagement in learning and involvement in the academic community. Although the current student engagement measures have contributed to advancing knowledge in the area, they are often too long and exclude agentic engagement, which is seen as a key dimension in higher education. This research aimed to (a) clarify the concept of student engagement and the conceptual problems of the existing scales and (b) develop and validate a short, robust scale for measuring student engagement in learning activities, including agentic engagement. We conducted three studies with Portuguese higher education students: Study 1 developed the Higher Education Student Engagement in Learning Activities – a Short Scale, using exploratory factor analysis to assess cognitive, affective, behavioral, and agentic dimensions. Study 2 and Study 3, with different samples, evaluated the reliability and validity of the developed scale through confirmatory factor analysis. The results highlight the importance of a four-dimensional conceptual approach to student engagement and provide a validated framework for its measurement. This short scale clarifies the distinction between engagement in learning and in the academic community, and introduces agentic engagement as a key dimension. It offers a valuable tool for assessing student engagement in higher education, with implications for enhancing academic practices and outcomes.学生投入对高等教育领域至关重要，因其对学业成就、课程完成率等学术成果具有显著影响。然而，学生投入的概念常被模糊界定，未能清晰区分学习投入与学术社群参与的范畴。尽管当前的学生投入测量工具为该领域的知识发展做出了一定贡献，但它们往往篇幅过长，且未纳入主体性投入（agentic engagement）这一高等教育中的关键维度。本研究旨在达成两大目标：其一，厘清学生投入的概念内涵及现有量表存在的概念性缺陷；其二，开发并验证一款简短且稳定的量表，用于测量学生在学习活动中的投入情况，其中涵盖主体性投入。本研究针对葡萄牙高等教育学生开展了三项子研究：子研究1通过探索性因子分析，构建了《高等教育学生学习活动投入简版量表》（Higher Education Student Engagement in Learning Activities – a Short Scale），并对认知、情感、行为及主体性投入四个维度进行了评估。子研究2与子研究3采用不同样本，通过验证性因子分析对所开发量表的信度与效度进行了评估。研究结果凸显了四维度学生投入概念框架的重要性，并为学生投入的测量提供了经过验证的分析范式。该简版量表厘清了学习投入与学术社群参与的边界，并将主体性投入作为核心维度纳入其中，为高等教育领域的学生投入评估提供了极具价值的工具，对优化学术实践与提升学术成果具有重要借鉴意义。