ESPLAT 2025 conference: Scientific thinking in challenging times

Introduction
The benefits of formative learning activities (FLAs) for students’ critical thinking skills and academic performance are well documented (Morris et al., 2021), yet student uptake of FLAs is often low (Wu & Jessop, 2018). Students are increasing their working hours due to rising costs of living and can struggle to engage meaningfully with FLAs in their limited study time (Office for Students, 2023). Working in partnership with students, this project aims to investigate student engagement with a range of formative learning activities, the relationship between engagement and academic performance, and elicit students’ views on the barriers to and enablers of engagement with FLAs.
Research questions:
How and why do students engage with formative learning activities?
What is the relationship between engagement in FLAs and academic performance?
What are the barriers to student engagement with FLAs?
What factors encourage student engagement in FLAs?
Methods
PGT psychology students (N = 86) registered on an online distance learning programme were asked to engage in FLAs such as progress trackers, quizzes, a formative blog post, and peer review. Using learner analytics, we analysed the relationship between students’ engagement in FLAs and final grades. A sample of students participated in student led focus groups, discussing challenges and enablers in relation to FLAs.
Results
Students’ engagement with FLAs predicted academic performance on the course assessment (all ps < =. 006). Qualitative analysis focused on the social, affective and motivational factors impacting engagement and students’ perceptions of how effective FLAs were for their learning.
Discussion
Findings will be discussed in relation to behavioural, cognitive, social and emotional dimensions of student engagement (Bergdahl et al., 2024) and design of interventions to increase engagement with FLAs. One implication is that providing students with insights into the impact of engagement on their learning can help foster self-regulation.