Teacher-student interaction, technology integration, and university students’ self-perceived academic success in lahore: the role of student engagement

Teacher-student interaction and technology integration are important features of contemporary higher education. However, their relationships with students’ self-perceived academic success may differ when examined together. The role of student engagement in these relationships also remains unclear. This study examined the associations among teacher-student interaction, technology integration, student engagement, and university students’ self-perceived academic success in Pakistan. It also tested whether student engagement was associated with the indirect pathways between the two predictors and academic success. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 668 university students from ten universities in Lahore, Pakistan. Data were collected using a self-developed questionnaire. The data were analyzed using Jamovi. An integrated mediation model was tested with teacher-student interaction and technology integration entered simultaneously. Direct, total, and indirect effects were estimated using 5,000 bootstrap samples. Teacher-student interaction was positively associated with student engagement, and technology integration was also positively associated with student engagement. However, teacher-student interaction was not significantly associated with self-perceived academic success. Technology integration showed a significant positive association with self-perceived academic success in the primary model, but this association became small and non-significant after overlapping items were removed in a sensitivity analysis. Student engagement was not significantly associated with academic success. Neither the indirect association between teacher-student interaction and academic success through student engagement nor the indirect association between technology integration and academic success through student engagement was significant. The findings provide limited support for the proposed model. Technology integration was positively associated with self-perceived academic success, but teacher-student interaction was not. Student engagement did not explain either relationship. The findings suggest that social interaction and technology may relate to students’ learning experiences through different pathways. Universities should not assume that increasing teacher-student interaction or technology use will automatically improve students’ perceived academic success. Technology should be integrated with clear learning purposes, while teacher-student interaction should be examined together with other academic and contextual factors.