The success or failure of a student depends on several factors, including self-esteem, academic engagement, and motivation. Self-esteem and motivation have been found to influence academic engagement, which, in turn, contributes to academic performance. Through a quantitative study, 243 university students were surveyed to analyze the effects of self-esteem and motivation on their academic engagement, which would be reflected in their academic performance. The results show that self-esteem has effects on emotional and behavioral disengagement. Motivation shows greater effects on academic engagement, with metacognitive engagement predicting students’ academic performance. Therefore, promoting metacognitive strategies that help students learn to plan, monitor, and self-regulate their learning will contribute to their performance.

In the academic context, the use of innovative learning techniques that can have a positive impact in the classroom is becoming increasingly common; gamification is one such technique. This study compared the effects of gamification on engagement, cognition, metacognition, and academic performance when university students used a gamified platform to when they did not in a mathematics course. Using the statistical technique of structural equation modelling (SEM) for both cases, the results show that motivation was the construct with the largest effects, influencing behavioral dissatisfaction, cognition, and metacognition. When students used the gamified platform, motivation influenced behavioral dissatisfaction, which in turn influenced academic performance. On the other hand, when the gamified platform was not used, motivation had a negative effect on academic performance. Therefore, the use of gamification learning strategies can help to reduce student demotivation.

Previous research has proposed a conceptual model of the relationships between motivation, emotions, cognition, and metacognition related to students’ learning performance and validated it in a blended learning context that combines traditional learning with the use of educational technology. This study examined these relationships to test the hypothesis that the levels of some factors in a face-to-face learning environment differ from those in a blended learning context, finding that the conceptual model is valid for both settings. The role of positive emotions was significant in blended learning but not in face-to-face learning. Furthermore, help-seeking and peer learning were relevant only in blended learning. A positive relationship between academic motivations and metacognitive strategies was found in the face-to-face context, whereas one from motivations to metacognitive and cognitive strategies was found in the blended context. Negative emotions were present in both learning settings. This shows that the role of emotions is relevant to students’ perceived success.

In higher education, students’ engagement plays an essential role in determining learning success. Several studies have focused on identifying the relationship between engagement and learning achievements. However, comprehensive studies that include engagement, motivation, and scaffolding have yet to be performed. This article introduced a concept of metacognitive and learning engagement based on the frontiers between metacognition and cognition previously established in the literature. A conceptual model including cognitive, behavioural, emotional, scaffolding, and motivation and the two new definitions (metacognitive and learning engagement) was proposed and validated in 220 university students using structural equation modelling. The findings support the conjecture that cognitive engagement is directly influenced by metacognitive engagement. Learning engagement is influenced by cognitive engagement, and all of them are triggered by motivation. Furthermore, scaffolding enhances emotional engagement. Teachers’ support fosters students’ emotions of being enthusiastic, interested in class, joyful in learning activities, and proud of their learning achievements.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, classes in schools acquired a hybrid learning model. Students took their classes both in person and, at other times, remotely. However, students are currently facing situations that they are not familiar with after a period of two years of confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This emerging model of learning, to which the students had to adapt, not only impacted on their emotions during learning but also influenced their perceptions of their abilities and skills in being able to perform adequately in a situation of uncertainty, which also influenced the degree of academic engagement that they had. This study applied the structural equation modeling technique, using PLS-SEM software, to a sample of 194 students. The results show that their self-efficacy to act in a situation of vulnerability was affected, which is why their negative emotions increased and their positive emotions decreased. This in turn influenced the degree of engagement and effort they invested in developing a school activity.