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?