Cross-Regional Students’ Engagement and Teacher Relationships Across Online and In-School Learning

This study examines how teacher–student relationships and school engagement change across online and in-school learning, based on the experiences of 105 cross-regional secondary vocational students in China. Using questionnaire surveys, the study explores students’ perceptions and learning needs in both settings. The findings confirm that teachers play a consistently positive role in promoting student engagement across both online and in-school learning modalities. While affective engagement was higher during online learning, driven by stronger teacher responsiveness and improved student–teacher relationships, students reported increased pride in their schools after returning home, reflecting a renewed appreciation. In-school learning was associated with higher behavioral engagement and greater motivation, despite tensions over intensified academic tasks. Online learning facilitated cognitive engagement through easier vocabulary searches; nevertheless, poor home environments reduced motivation. Enhancing engagement may require offering students autonomy, valuing their input, and clarifying the relevance of the learning content.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Education sciences

• Publication date

  2025-08-05

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/educsci15080993
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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