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Perspectives of student engagement
Learning and Teaching Conference Faculty of Science and Engineering
30th March 2015
Mark Langan (School of Science and Environment)
Nicola Whitton (Faculty of Education)
Jenny Davidson (School of Science and Environment)
Matthew Yeates (School of Science and Environment)
Structure
• What is engagement?• Why is engagement important?• What is associated with disengagement?• What approaches can lead to enhanced engagement?
QAA Quality Code for Higher Education B5 Student Engagement
The term covers two domains relating to:
1. The participation of students in quality enhancement and quality assurance processes, resulting in the improvement of their educational experience.
2. Improving the motivation of students to engage in learning and to learn independently (see Section B3)
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/StudentEngagementLiteratureReview_1.pdf
“Student engagement is concerned with the interaction between the time, effort and other relevant resources invested by both students and their institutions intended to optimise the student experience and enhance the learning outcomes and development of students and the performance, and reputation of the institution”
Trowler (2010)
“For some students, engagement with the university experience is like engaging in a battle, a conflict. These are the students for whom the culture of the university is foreign and at times alienating and uninviting”
Krause 2005 (cited in Trowler 2010)
“Student engagement is concerned with the interaction between the time, effort and other relevant resources invested by both students and their institutions intended to optimise the student experience and enhance the learning outcomes and development of students and the performance, and reputation of the institution”
Trowler (2010)
Trowler (2010)
Kahu, E.R. (2013): Framing student engagement in higher education, Studies in Higher Education, 38:5, 758-773
Education:Learner
engagement
Game studies:Player
engagement
SuperficialEngagemen
t
Participation
Attention
DeepEngagemen
t
CaptivationPassion
AffiliationIncorporati
on
“I go to law lectures”“I concentrate in law classes”“I am immersed in learning law”“I am excited by learning law”“I learn with lawyers”“I am a lawyer”
Does engagement = learning?
• Depends how you define engagement• Depends how you measure learning• Correlation <> causality• Intrinsic motivation is the key
Why would a student disengage?
Students withdrawing Factors BIS 2014HE institutionAge xGender xEthnicity xPrior achievement (highest qual) xPOLAR xSubject xParental HE xParental occupation xRegion home xSchool type x
SA confidence xSA numeracy xSA spoken xSA Computer xSA Written x
http://www.hecsu.ac.uk/assets/assets/documents/Futuretrack_BIS_Learning_from_futuretrack_dropout.pdf
How important is fun?
• Hour-long interviews with 37 undergraduates • 22 first years (October-November) • 15 final years (March-April)
• Should learning in HE be fun and what makes it fun?
• Yes, but…• Fun isn’t (necessarily) games• Fun doesn’t preclude hard work
What makes learning fun?
• Active, personally meaningful learning tasks
• Lecturer attitude and enthusiasm• Peer interaction• Lack of pressure
Some ideas…
… that have worked for me
‘Professional’-led:
small final year classes (process not content)
Professional Class (n = 20-40)Tutor
Student-led:
small final year classes (process not content)
‘Class’Students
Peer and self-assessment:
large first year classes (enhanced interaction and reflection)
Class marking(n = 150 - 250)
Tutor Learner
Students agree the detail of the course content, they go and find out about it for themselves. They take the classes,
they discuss and set their own assessments (e.g. exam questions),
they mark the assessments and feedback to each other.
A pipe dream?
Student’s views
Carried out a small research project that explored techniques used to engage students within lectures.
Evidenced by • A review of the literature• A small study into student views of their lectures
What we did
• Structured literature review• Surveyed students after lecture classes through a
questionnaire• Students studied in the EGS network (e.g. Geography, EMS) • Overall, 62 students surveyed (paper questionnaire) after
five lecture classes
Questionnaire excerpts1. How engaged did you feel during this lecture?
a) Very engagedb) Limited/ occasional engagementc) Not at all engaged
2. What activity do you feel was most engaging? 3. Which activity do you feel most helped your learning? 4. What activity did you feel was least engaging? 5. What activities would you like to see more of during lectures?
a) Use of social media such as Facebook and Twitterb) Use of integrative technology
c) Group work tasksd) Written tasks (with focus on current assignments) e) Other
What we found
• Found the many definitions confusing• Thought Trowler (2010) was most useful
• Students were strongly assessment driven and this was linked to their levels of engagement…
Assignment Focus
Group Discussion
Video Use Subject Content
Other0
5
10
15
20
25
Very Engaged Limited engagmnet
Lecture activity
Parti
cipen
t res
ponc
e ra
te
(f)
Figure 1. Lecture activities that produced high levels of engagement, though thematic analysis, plotted against student’s overall engagement level. Other: independent reading (n=1) and external speaker (n=1).
Even students who had ‘limited’ engagement through the lecture engaged with the
assignment focused activities!
What we found (2)
• Students suggested they engaged more when classes were perceived as directly enhancing their performance in assessments
• In-class peer interactions were valued
• As students ourselves we find in large classes it’s difficult to contribute, hopefully ‘one brave student puts their hands up first’; there is pressure to get it right;
• Methods to ‘breaking the silence’
What we found (3)
• Simply reading out slides on Powerpoint – not great as a basic principle
• Some staff are seemingly ‘naturally engaging/captivating’ through their enthusiasm, manner, delivery.
• Potential for technology if it plays a useful role (to interact, break lecture up; e.g. Twitter on screen to show live updates of class thinking etc)?
Conclusions• Engagement is complex with several interpretations • Links to learning gains, participation and learner success• Individual learner attributes and institutional factors• LTA approaches that include, motivate and challenge all
learners (achievable and with appropriate support)
• Are the expectations of your students the same as yours?