Student burnout, student engagement and learning outcomes in university education

This chapter presents a systematic review of the literature on the associations between two specific forms of student well-being (that is, student burnout and engagement), on the one hand, and achievement/learning-related outcomes (GPA and dropout intentions), on the other. Drawing on seven independent studies conducted in university settings (involving 14 samples, total n = 6,712 university students), we examined the support for beneficial (adverse) effects of engagement (burnout) on student achievement/learning-related outcomes. We found strong support for consistent (and adverse) effects of burnout on academic performance/dropout intentions. Similarly, student engagement was positively associated with academic performance. The evidence for the association between engagement and dropout intentions was inconsistent. Three gaps in the research on student engagement/burnout and achievement/learning-related outcomes are the following. First, there is a lack of methodologically strong studies: prospective longitudinal studies were absent, and studies usually relied on self-report data, meaning that the causal direction of the effects under study cannot be established. Second, the conceptual/theoretical foundations for both the concepts used (e.g., how do different conceptualizations of student engagement relate to each other?) and the mechanisms accounting for the associations among the study concepts are weak. Finally, given the available evidence, we conclude that student burnout/engagement and academic achievement are related. However, the evidence for the direction of these associations is weak. The present review shows that stronger empirical tests of the associations among the study concepts and the mechanisms accounting for these associations are needed to bring the field further.