Linda Leach

Improving Student Engagement: Ten Proposals for Action.

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.

Integration and adaptation Approaches to the student retention and achievement puzzle

Tertiary institutions are under increasing pressure to improve student outcomes such as retention, persistence and completion. In 2002, the New Zealand Ministry of Education commissioned a team of Massey University researchers to conduct a best evidence synthesis of literature on how institutions might improve student outcomes. Our study found two different discourses on this. One predominates, centring on what institutions do to fit students into their existing cultures. The other is still emerging and challenges the dominant discourse. Rather than requiring students to fit the existing institutional culture, it suggests that cultures be adapted to better fit the needs of increasingly diverse students. This article has four sections. First, a survey of background literature introduces competing theoretical approaches to outcomes research. Second, we explain how the survey was conducted. Third, we summarize the findings of 146 research studies. Finally we raise some challenges for practice based on the emerging discourse.

Being Learner Centred: One Way to Improve Student Retention?.

The research literature on how to retain students until they graduate in post‐compulsory education is voluminous and long‐standing. However, a unified theory of retention remains elusive. Instead a variety of explanations and approaches has been developed. This article uses one theoretical construct to make sense of the findings of a survey of students enrolling for a second time in seven post‐compulsory institutions in New Zealand. The theoretical construct is based on an adaptation discourse that puts the interests of diverse students at the centre of teaching and institutional processes. The results of the survey suggest that in New Zealand retention rates are similar to those reported in other studies, that there is support for the learner focus promoted in the adaptation discourse, and that being learner centred could assist retention.

Improving student outcomes in higher education: New Zealand teachers’ views on teaching students from diverse backgrounds

The research literature on student retention is voluminous and longstanding. However, a unified theory of retention remains elusive; instead a variety of explanations and approaches have been developed. This article uses two discourses, integration and adaptation, to make sense of the findings from a survey of teachers who taught students enrolled for the first time in seven tertiary institutions in New Zealand. While the article reports results from the survey, it focuses particularly on how tertiary teachers understand diversity; whether and how they accommodate diversity in their teaching. It offers some critical reflections on these teachers’ views about diversity.

Engaging Students in Learning: A Review of a Conceptual Organiser.

Student engagement in learning is a complex process influenced by many factors. This article introduces a conceptual organiser developed from a review of the literature. It captures four key perspectives – motivation and agency, transactional engagement, institutional support and active citizenship – and suggested indicators for each perspective. Data from a project researching student engagement with first‐time enrolled students in Aotearoa New Zealand is then used to review the conceptual organiser. Findings show that the four perspectives were all evident, though some indicators were more clearly supported than others. As a result of the evaluation, changes were made to the organiser. We argue that it has value as a way for teachers and institutions to inform and evaluate their efforts to engage students in learning.

Beyond hard outcomes: ‘soft’ outcomes and engagement as student success

This paper questions current policy discourses that equate student success with hard outcomes like retention, completion and employment. It offers another view, one that uses ‘soft’ outcomes and student engagement literature to widen our understanding of student success. In the paper, we first draw on literature to explore student engagement, usually understood as a means to achieve success, and ‘soft’ outcomes as acceptable student outcomes, as success. We present possible indicators for these forms of success and a matrix of factors which influence such success. We then examine these ideas using data gathered from a project that investigated success as experienced by post-school foundation learners in Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The findings suggest that the ideas have value. Finally, we identify some implications for teachers, arguing that, contrary to some current views, all four quadrants in the matrix are the business of teachers.

Optional self-assessment: some tensions and dilemmas

Self-assessment is promoted as an ideal form of assessment, particularly for adult learners as they need to be able to make judgements about how well they are doing something – whether it is related to learning, work or social interactions. However, there is also opposition to summative self-assessment on the grounds that students cannot validly and reliably assess their own work. At Massey University students enrolled in adult education qualifications are offered the opportunity to self or peer assess. This small-scale project investigated 472 student responses to self-assessment in this context. Findings show that 38% self-assessed by making comments on their work, and 25% awarded themselves a grade. A statistical analysis showed there was no significant difference (p > .01) between the self-assessed and teacher-assessed grades. Data also showed that higher achieving students tended to underrate and lower achieving to overrate. However, it is suggested that this may be a function of the grading scale rather than necessarily reflecting students’ capability to self-assess. Some tensions and dilemmas around optional self-assessment are identified and discussed.

Linking academic emotions and student engagement: mature-aged distance students’ transition to university

Research into both student engagement and student emotions is increasing, with widespread agreement that both are critical determinants of student success in higher education. Less researched are the complex, reciprocal relationships between these important influences. Two theoretical frameworks inform this paper: Pekrun’s taxonomy of academic emotions and Kahu’s conceptual framework of student engagement. The prospective qualitative design aims to allow a rich understanding of the fluctuating and diverse emotions that students experience during the transition to university and to explore the relationships between academic emotions and student engagement. The study follows 19 mature-aged (aged 24 and over) distance students throughout their first semester at university, using video diaries to collect data on their emotional experiences and their engagement with their study. Pre and post-semester interviews were also conducted. Findings highlight that different emotions have different links to engagement: as important elements in emotional engagement, as inhibitors of engagement and as outcomes that reciprocally influence engagement. There are two key conclusions. First, student emotions are the point of intersection between the university factors such as course design and student variables such as motivation and background. Second, the flow of influence between emotions, engagement, and learning is reciprocal and complex and can spiral upwards towards ideal engagement or downwards towards disengagement and withdrawal.

Engagement in Post-Compulsory Education: Students' Motivation and Action.

This paper reports on one phase of a project on student engagement in Aotearoa New Zealand. It reports the results of a survey of students enrolled for the first time in a post‐compulsory education programme. The students were enrolled in one of nine institutions: two universities, one wānanga, four institutes of technology, a private training establishment and a community organisation. This paper reports on one aspect of the questionnaire. It uses Self‐Determination Theory to investigate motivators for student engagement and assesses how extensively they are acted on by students. Findings show that institutions are both different and similar; that students are motivated more by competence than agency or relationships; and that they act on agency needs more than on competency or relationship ones. Drawing on the similarities, the paper outlines some ways in which teachers and institutions might use the findings to improve student engagement.

Improving learner outcomes in lifelong education: formal pedagogies in non‐formal learning contexts?

This article explores how far research findings about successful pedagogies in formal post‐school education might be used in non‐formal learning contexts – settings where learning may not lead to formal qualifications. It does this by examining a learner outcomes model adapted from a synthesis of research into retention. The article first introduces the model. It then explores this model to identify pedagogy suitable for formal education. Next it asks whether this pedagogy may also be appropriate for use in four non‐formal learning contexts: community development; adult literacy; workplace learning; and personal interest learning. While it gives a qualified ‘yes’ to the question, it acknowledges some shortcomings in the pedagogy for non‐formal adult learning. Finally, the article attempts to address shortcomings by integrating a critical dimension into the model, suggesting that learner outcomes in formal education could also benefit from the inclusion of this critical dimension.