Principles for good practice in graduate and professional student engagement (original) (raw)

Twelve tips for enhancing student engagement

Medical teacher, 2018

Student engagement refers to a broad range of activities where students participate in management, education, research, and community activities within their institutions. It is a mutually beneficial collaborative approach between students and their institutions. This article provides practical advice for the implementation or further development of student engagement at medical, dental, and veterinary schools. The tips provided are based on the experiences of a group of universities recently recognized for best practice in student engagement, and are supported by evidence from the literature. The tips cover overarching themes which include the creation of an institutional culture and formal framework for student engagement, and maximize communication routes between students with peers and faculty. Tips are for specific areas of active student engagement, covering curriculum design and development, peer teaching, governance processes, research activities, peer support programs, and ...

Student Engagement: Bridging Research and Practice to Improve the Quality of Undergraduate Education

Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, v. 28, 2013

This chapter traces the development of student engagement as a research-informed intervention to shift the discourse on quality in higher education to emphasize matters of teaching and learning while providing colleges and universities with diagnostic, actionable information that can inform improvement efforts. The conceptual lineage of student engagement blends a set of related theoretical propositions (quality of effort, involvement, and integration) with practice-focused prescriptions for good practice in undergraduate education. The development of survey-based approaches to measuring student engagement is reviewed, including a treatment of recent criticisms of these approaches. Next, we summarize important empirical findings, including validation research, typological research, and research on institutional improvement. Because student engagement emerged as an intervention to inform educational improvement, we also present examples of how engagement data are being used at colleges and universities. The chapter concludes with a discussion of challenges and opportunities going forward.

Student engagement at the Southern Institute of Technology: A case study

2010

Student engagement has largely remained unexplored at the Southern Institute of Technology.. In order to improve outcomes for students, teaching staff and the institution as a whole, research was undertaken to investigate various facets regarding student engagement. This case study was one of nine undertaken within tertiary institutions in New Zealand exploring student engagement with their learning. The project, entitled "Learning Environment and Student Engagement with Learning in Tertiary Settings", was funded by the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI). All nine institutions used the same research tools for the study. The research question posed was, "How does institutional and non-institutional learning environments influence student engagement with learning in diverse tertiary settings?" Student engagement is a complex concept which required research input both from students and teaching staff. The data from the case study reported in this paper were both quantitative, in the form of student and staff surveys, and qualitative, in the form of student interviews and staff comments. A disappointing total of 54 responses where received from the student survey and 10 in-depth student interviews were also conducted. Nineteen teaching staff responded to the staff survey. In order to give greater depth to the findings, literature related to student engagement was interwoven with the data from the surveys and interviews in the final report. The case study focused on transactions within the institution. While analysing the data for this case study, it was decided to compare the results of the student and staff data as similar themes became apparent from the data analysis. Feedback to students was an important element that derived from the data analysis of both surveys. Two other important facets relating to improving student engagement were the accessibility of teaching staff to students and that student engagement is a shared responsibility between the student and teachers. The major recommendations include that teaching staff make it a priority to give prompt and constructive feedback, that teaching staff create an environment where students feel comfortable to seek advice and support, and that "good teaching" principles are reflected upon and practised. The findings from this study are limited as the numbers responding to the surveys were small. Also findings are specific to the institution, although the results reflect what has been written in the literature related to improving student engagement. The results and recommendations can act as a framework for the institution to consider how best to implement a successful student engagement policy. This research adds to the growing body of literature on student engagement in the New Zealand context.

STUDENT INVOLVEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT IN THE UNDERGRADUATE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

Traditionally, undergraduate students were regarded as passive receptors of knowledge confined to classrooms or the library. This view is now completely rejected as it is widely believed that students' active participation or engagement in college life and activities, whether in class, on campus, or in the community, is imperative to help improve the student's academic attainment and personal development. The present paper aims to highlight the importance of student involvement and engagement to enhance the undergraduate learning experience. The first part of the paper presents a theoretical background to the topic, including definitions of key terms and a review of relevant theories. The second part discusses a variety of techniques and strategies to increase undergraduate student engagement. Reference is made to real-life projects and programs that have been implemented in different academic disciplines.

Assessing the Culture of Engagement on a University Campus

Journal of Community Engagement and Scholorship, 2012

This article describes one team's efforts to assess the culture of engagement at Virginia Tech. The team utilized a two-pronged approach to analyze the current culture of engagement on campus. This included focus groups with faculty, administrators, and graduate students in two colleges at the university to address pedagogy, implications, and practical issues related to engagement. Analysis of college strategic plans was also completed to assess language related to engagement and engaged scholarship. We found why faculty, administrators, and students conduct engagement work and the challenges and opportunities of doing so. We also discovered what criteria these individuals use to determine quality engagement, what they believe engagement on campus should look like, and the products derived from engagement work. This article describes our team's efforts and documents the lessons learned to inform similar efforts on other campuses.

Undergraduate Student Engagement

2016

In the 21st Century, Canadian universities are increasingly emphasizing the importance of student engagement. This research paper, by analyzing the reflections of undergraduate students on their experiences in a co-curricular service learning assignment – integrated into a course that included more traditional assignments – in the context of situated learning theory, advocates for a community-focused assignment as a component in a “traditional ” lecture-and-discussion based course as a tool for enhanced engagement through active, collaborative learning. While the case study explored is a drama course, the anticipated audience is pan-disciplinary, as the article casts more broadly by providing brief, general guidelines on implementing an experiential learning assignment and encouraging all professors to reflect on their classroom theory and praxis to the end of augmenting student engagement. Au 21e siècle, les universités canadiennes accordent une place de plus en plus importante à l...

Improving student engagement: Ten proposals for action

Active Learning in Higher Education, 2010

Since the 1980s an extensive research literature has investigated how to improve student success in higher education focusing on student outcomes such as retention, completion and employability. A parallel research programme has focused on how students engage with their studies and what they, institutions and educators can do to enhance their engagement, and hence success. This article reports on two syntheses of research literature on student engagement and how this can be enhanced. It first synthesizes 93 research studies from ten countries to develop a conceptual organizer for student engagement that consists of four perspectives identified in the research: student motivation; transactions between teachers and students; institutional support; and engagement for active citizenship. Secondly, the article synthesizes findings from these perspectives as ten propositions for improving student engagement in higher education. It concludes by identifying some limitations with the conceptual organizer and one suggestion for developing a more integrated approach to student engagement.