ABSTRACT
Initially developed in the Western context, research on student engagement in various contexts has gained more popular attention. Particularly, studying engagement in Asian countries has been popular due to their strong performances in large-scale international comparison assessments such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), and International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) (Leung, 2002; OECD, 2010). When referring to Asian countries, however, it is often limited to some highly developed countries including Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong-China (and parts of large cities or economies in China such as Macao and Guangzhou). In contrast, Indonesia, a developing Asian country, performs poorly in the above-mentioned international assessments. This may partially explain why research on student engagement from the Indonesian context is currently underrepresented in the literature.
