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) Room C42; 12—1pm

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: 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)

Section B5 QAA QC: http://www. qaa. ac

https://www. heacademy. ac 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) “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) https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/StudentEngagementLiteratureReview_1.pdf

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

Participation Attention Superficial Engagement Difference between extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation

Deep Engagement Captivation Passion Affiliation Incorporation

“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 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) Tutor Class (n = 20-40)

Student-led: small final year classes (process not content) Students

Peer and self-assessment: large first year classes (enhanced interaction and reflection) Tutor Class marking (n = 150 - 250) Learner

A pipe dream? 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.

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 excerpts 1. How engaged did you feel during this lecture? a) Very engaged b) Limited/ occasional engagement c) 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? Use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter Use of integrative technology c) Group work tasks d) 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…

Even students who had ‘limited’ engagement through the lecture engaged with the assignment focused activities! 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).

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?