Making use of the concepts of student engagement to enhance learning and teaching Colin Bryson, Lucy Boden and Holly Maxey Newcastle University

Goals  A shared understanding of the nature and meaning of student engagement  Look at the research and evidence  Consider how this should guide practice and policy and consider some current good practice  Putting into your practice student engagement

A big question 1. What is student engagement – a starting definition? 2. What it does it look like? student engagement

Conceptions of engagement – the dominant paradigm - NSSE Roots (Becker, 1961: Pace, 1979: Astin, 1977: Chickering and Gamson, 1987: Pascarella and Terenzini, 1991, 2005) A focus in USA on active classroom behaviours - (National Student Survey on Engagement) – George Kuh Survey used very widely - Over 100 publications, millions of respondents in HEIs Now revising survey into NSSE2.0 Australia – the FYE…convergence with US thinking Coates developed NSSE into the AUSSE (and now we have SASSE etc) student engagement

A different form of student evidence….my own work  Drawn from five studies since 2003, mainly qualitative  Includes two longitudinal studies  And one of these was the staff perspective on SE student engagement

SE is holistic and socially constructed  Every student is an individual and different (Haggis, 2004)  Engagement is a concept which encompasses the perceptions, expectations and experience of being a student and the construction of being a student in HE (Bryson and Hand, 2007).  Engagement underpins learning and is the glue that binds it together – both located in being and becoming. (Fromm, 1977)  More than about doing/behaving and quantity  Method, validity and reliability issues  SE is dynamic and fluid  SE is multidimensional, includes student’s whole lives and it is the interaction and pattern that matters not any specific variable – avoid reductionism  SE needs to sensitive to the local context  Closed question surveys do not allow student voice student engagement

Key influences on engagement 1. Student expectations and perceptions – match to the ‘personal project’ and interest in subject 2. Balances between challenge and appropriate workload 3. Degrees of choice, autonomy, risk, and opportunities for growth and enjoyment 4. Trust relationships 5. Communication and discourse 6. A sense of belonging and community 7. The salience of social networks student engagement

A wider exploration of the lit Strong evidence base and critical perspective from schools SE research - patterns (Fredricks et al; Zyngier; Gibbs & Posskitt; Harris) Willingness ….and readiness…to engage (McCune; Handley et al; Barnett) Inclusivity (Hockings) Ways of being a student (Dubet; Brennan et al) student engagement

The flipside of SE Alienation, inertia/anomie and disengagement (Mann: Krause)  Performativity  Being ‘other’  Disciplinary power  Inertia  Battle between cultures and values student engagement

Engagement to what? And to what end? student engagement

Engagement to what? Engagement to and with different levels (Bryson and Hand) Collective SE – but also participation and partnership (Little et al: Bovill: Healey et al) Integration, belonging and community (Tinto: Kember: Wenger and several others) Perspectives on education (Trowler) Intellectual development (Perry: Baxter Magolda: Belenky) student engagement

The value of engagement after HE (my most recent research) Integrated development of the whole person (and ‘disposition’)  Graduateness and graduate attributes (Barrie, 2007)  Graduate identity (Holmes, 2001) and USEM (Yorke and Knight, 2006) The whole HE experience – thus the extracurricular is vital – authentic experiences The engaged students tends to take up more opportunities AND is better able to join them up in their thinking student engagement

A revised definition of SE Student engagement is about what a student brings to Higher Education in terms of goals, aspirations, value and beliefs and how these are shaped and mediated by their experience whilst a student. SE is constructed and reconstructed through the lenses of the perceptions and identities held by students and the meaning and sense a student makes of their experiences and interactions. As players and shapers of the educational context, educators need to foster educational, purposeful SE to support and enable students to learn in constructive and powerful ways and realise their potential in education and society. student engagement

To aid clarity -separate the dual Engaging students Students engaging student engagement

To meet regularly to discuss SE. To involve and work with students in partnership An early goal was to develop a concept map and set of principles that underpin the promotion of SE To establish an annual conference drawing together leading edge work on SE - and to feed into publication through journals and books. (Next conference– Sept 2013, Nottingham) To gain funding to support these events and activities. To create a bank of useful resources for us to share. To facilitate communication between us (web, network etc) student engagement

Engaging students - principles We should: 1. Foster student’s willingness and readiness to engage by enhancing their self-belief 2. Embrace the point that students have diverse backgrounds, expectations, orientations and aspirations – thus different ‘ways of being a student’, and to welcome, respect and accommodate all of these in an inclusive way 3. Enable and facilitate trust relationships (between staff:students and students:students) in order to develop a discourse with each and all students and to show solidarity with them 4. Create opportunities for learning (in its broadest sense) communities so that students can develop a sense of competence and belonging within these communities student engagement

5. Teach in ways to make learning participatory, dialogic, collaborative, authentic, active and critical 6. Foster autonomy and creativity, and offer choice and opportunities for growth and enriching experiences in a low risk and safe setting 7. Recognise the impact on learning of non-institutional influences and accommodate these 8. Design and implement assessment for learning with the aim to enable students to develop their ability to evaluate critically the quality and impact of their own work 9. Seek to negotiate and reach a mutual consensus with students on managing workload, challenge, curriculum and assessment for their educational enrichment – through a partnership model – without diluting high expectations and educational attainment 10. Enable students to become active citizens and develop their social and cultural capital student engagement

So what works? Kuh (2008) i. First year seminars (e.g. SI and PAL) ii. Learning communities – cross module iii. Service learning – experiential iv. Common intellectual experiences v. Writing intensive courses vi. Collaborative projects vii. Undergraduate research viii. Diversity learning ix. Internships x. Capstone courses student engagement

A whole institutional approach Sally Kift Transition Pedagogies in FYE at QUT A holistic curriculum design approach TransitionDiversity DesignEngagement AssessmentEvaluation and Monitoring student engagement

At the module level Sarah Cant and Peter Watts First year sociology module at Canterbury Christchurch Drew on application of sociological theory Year long induction Tiered learning PAL PDP Portfolio assessment student engagement

The student partnership approach HEA and NUS based on HEFCE funded CHERI Report Student representation and feedback “students as partners in a learning community” Liz Dunne at Exeter – Students as Change Agents Birmingham City University - Academic partners scheme Bath – embedding SE in all processes Co-design of curriculum (Bovill et al, 2011) But need to ensure real partnership not ‘pseudo- participation’.(Wenstone, 2012) student engagement

A holistic approach to a degree programme  Combined Honours at Newcastle  Diverse and complex  Individuals doing unique degree  Missing sense of identity/ belonging  But few resources and so difficult to influence the curriculum So how to address? Find a talented group with innovative ideas, great energy and boundless enthusiasm Engagement and partnership

Enhancing engagement in Combined Honours Student representation:  Empowerment- Student led, working groups  Partnership  Active agenda – providing solutions Success stories  Defending the degree  Combined Honours Week  Curriculum co-design  Redesign of transition Engagement and partnership

Enhancing engagement in Combined Honours Peer mentoring – social integration PASS scheme – academic integration Engagement and partnership

Enhancing engagement in Combined Honours Building community:  Facilities and spaces  Social agenda – the CHS Joining it all up – events and activities are shared and promoted by all parties Evolving and growing But there are thorny issues Engagement and partnership

Applying these ideas Your challenge is to enhance the engagement of students (existing or prospective role in which you are involved). Your task is to come up with ONE good (and feasible) idea that could be built into the module or programme design or the student experience more broadly Start by thinking of a prospective idea – pitch ideas to group and agree to adopt one (do try something radical but not completely impossible) then scope it out… What is it trying to achieve? How will it work Operational design Summarise your plans on an A2 sized poster student engagement

The impact on staff It can be hard to let go! Uncomfortable at the beginning Highly positive outcomes Transformative! student engagement