An Investigation of the Contingent Relationships Between Learning Community Participation and Student Engagement

This study examined the contingent relationships between learning community participation and student engagement in educational activities inside and outside the classroom using data from the 2004 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Results indicated that learning community participation was positively and significantly related to student engagement, both for first-year students and seniors. For some types of engagement, relationships were significantly stronger for seniors than for first-year students. Analyses also revealed there was substantial variability across institutions in the magnitude of the relationships between learning community participation and first-year students’ levels of engagement. Although institutional characteristics accounted for some of the variability across institutions, a substantial amount of the variability in engagement–learning community relationships remained unexplained.     

Faculty Emphases on Alternative Course-Specific Learning Outcomes in Holland’s Model Environments: The Role of Environmental Consistency

This study examines variability in the extent to which faculty members in the disciplinary-based academic environments of Holland’s theory emphasize different student learning outcomes in their classes and whether such differences are comparable for those in “consistent” versus “inconsistent” environments. The findings show wide variation in the extent to which faculty members in four of the academic environments of Holland’s theory emphasize the alternative student learning outcomes and that such differences vary based on the level of consistency or inconsistency in the environmental profiles of the environments. The implications of these findings for future research using Holland’s theory to understand longitudinal patterns of change and stability in the attitudes, interests, and abilities of college students as well as variability in the patterns of professional attitudes and behaviors of college faculty are discussed. Attention is also devoted to the policy development and practical implications of these findings for academic advisors, career counselors, and other college and university leaders.     

More than meets the eye: Curricular and Programmatic Effects on Student Learning

This article reports the effects of program characteristics and faculty activities on students’ experiences and, ultimately, the development of students’ analytical and group skills. Data come from nationally representative samples of 4,330 seniors, 1,243 faculty members, and 147 engineering program chairs on 40 campuses nationwide. Findings indicate that program characteristics and faculty behaviors and values have significant, if relatively small and largely indirect, effects on student learning by encouraging (or discouraging) certain kinds of student experiences, which, in turn, influence student learning. The results point to a need for more complex designs than are typically adopted in most learning outcomes studies. Paper presented at the meeting of the Association for Institutional Research, May 16, 2006, Chicago, IL.     

Faculty do Matter: The Role of College Faculty in Student Learning and Engagement

This study uses two national data sets to explore the relationship between faculty practices and student engagement. Our findings suggest that students report higher levels of engagement and learning at institutions where faculty members use active and collaborative learning techniques, engage students in experiences, emphasize higher-order cognitive activities in the classroom, interact with students, challenge students academically, and value enriching educational experiences.     

Tightening Curricular Connections: CQI and Effective Curriculum Planning

Over the past decade, continuous quality improvement (CQI) has emerged as a strategy for documenting and systematically building academic program quality. This study used a nationally representative sample of engineering faculty members and students to examine the influence of faculty members’ CQI activities on the relationships between student and institutional characteristics, student experiences in- and out-of-class, and student learning outcomes. A cluster analysis validated the use of four CQI-related variables to differentiate engineering programs into high- and low-CQI groups. In a multiple group path analysis, the models for the high and low groups differed significantly, supporting the hypothesis that CQI indirectly influences the relationships between student and institutional characteristics, student experiences, and student learning outcomes. Further, the path results suggested a number of modifications to the analytical and conceptual frameworks used in the study.     

Pedagogy for Equity: Teaching in a Hispanic-Serving Institution

Three female tenure-track faculty members at a Hispanic-Serving Institution explored how their cultural backgrounds inform their pedagogical approaches toward equity. They drew upon Mills’s (1959) and Collins’s (1993) frameworks to examine how their personal biographies, local social contexts, and broader systemic institutions affect their teaching processes for diverse students. These teaching processes include limiting assumptions about students, encouraging students to consider their own personal biographies in relation to the social world, welcoming students’ multiple modes of expression, serving as role models, and challenging inequities in schooling. They conclude with recommendations for enhancing inclusivity in student learning and faculty development.     

The perception of workload and task complexity and its influence on students’ approaches to learning: a study in higher education

Researchers have tried to induce a deeper approach to learning by means of student-centred learning environments. Findings did not always confirm the positive hypotheses. This has given rise to the question as to what the discouraging or encouraging factors are for inducing a deep approach to learning. The aim of this research study is to determine whether perceived workload and task complexity are discouraging or encouraging factors. In addition, these relationships will be investigated under different induced conditions which offer the potential to deepen our understanding of the nature of the investigated relationships. Participants were 128 second year Bachelor level students in educational sciences. After an introduction with the theory, students were given four tasks with various workloads and task complexities after which they filled out questionnaires on learning approaches, perceived workload and perceived task complexity. For every task, correlations and multiple stepwise regressions were calculated. The information from the interviews was used to support and illustrate the results of quantitative analyses. In general, results show no significant relationship between perceived workload and students’ approaches to learning. For perceived task complexity, it was found that a perceived lack of information is a discouraging factor for inducing a deep learning approach. A lack of information consistently increases students’ surface approaches to learning regardless of the induced workload and task complexity.     

“Is that paper really due today?”: differences in first-generation and traditional college students’ understandings of faculty expectations

Success in college is not simply a matter of students demonstrating academic ability. In addition, students must master the “college student” role in order to understand instructors’ expectations and apply their academic skills effectively to those expectations. This article uses data from focus groups to examine the fit between university faculty members’ expectations and students’ understanding of those expectations. Parallel discussions among groups of faculty and groups of students highlight important differences regarding issues of time management and specific aspects of coursework. We find definite incongruities between faculty and student perspectives and identify differences between traditional and first-generation college students. We argue that variations in cultural capital, based on parents’ educational experiences, correspond to important differences in each group’s mastery of the student role and, thus, their ability to respond to faculty expectations. The conclusion discusses the theoretical and practical implications of considering role mastery a form of cultural capital.     

Individual differences in working memory capacity and attention,and their relationship with students’ approaches to learning

Past research has shown that working memory capacity, attention and students’ approaches to learning are all important predictors for educational achievement. In this study the interrelations between these three variables are investigated. Participants were 128 university students. Results show a negative relationship between attention and deep approaches to learning: students with a lower level of attention seem to use more deep approaches to learning than students with higher levels of attention. It was also found that students with a high working memory capacity score lower on both the surface and deep approaches to learning than students with a low working memory capacity. A possible explanation is that these high capacity students might not need a consistent profound strategy to be successful because they are very good at acquiring, processing and integrating all types of new information before moving it to storage.     

The organizational impact of university labor unions

The current review presents both postulated and empirically tested consequences of university unionization and labor strikes on the North American institution’s administration, faculty, and students. The review explores the impact of collective bargaining on employee working conditions including job security, academic freedom, university governance, and due process. More importantly, this review examines the much neglected issue of organizational work relationships in a unionized academic environment. The relationships discussed include those between faculty members, between the faculty and administration, between the faculty and the university as an institution, and between the faculty and their union. The threat of unionization and labor strikes to the professor–student or mentor–mentee relationship has been a central concern of those opposed to graduate student unions, and this issue is also addressed here. The text concludes with the identification of potential areas for future research.     

Going Deep into Mechanisms for Moral Reasoning Growth: How Deep Learning Approaches Affect Moral Reasoning Development for First-year Students

The purpose of this paper was to determine the effects of deep approaches to learning on the moral reasoning development of 1,457 first-year students across 19 institutions. Results showed a modest positive relationship between our measures of deep approaches to learning and moral reasoning at the end of the first year of college even after controlling for precollege moral reasoning. After accounting for a host of demographic and relevant student characteristics and for the natural clustering of students, we found that the integrative learning subscale, which captures students’ participation in activities designed to integrate information from varied sources and diverse perspectives, positively affected moral reasoning among first-year students. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

The Influences of Faculty on Undergraduate Student Participation in Research and Creative Activities

Using data collected from surveys of college juniors and seniors and faculty members in related academic departments, this study examined whether faculty teaching and research orientations, as well as faculty external funding, had any impact on undergraduate student participation in research and creative activities. The results of the study indicated that faculty research orientation and external funding were indeed positively related to student participation in research activities. However, faculty members’ teaching orientation was not significant. Further analyses indicated that faculty teaching and research orientations had different impacts on a range of research and creative activities by undergraduate students. The findings from this study provide insight on ways of improving college teaching and learning as well as informing the development of institutional academic policies related to faculty and undergraduate education. Shouping Hu is Associate Professor of Higher Education at Florida State University. He received his M.S. degree in Economics and Ph.D. in Higher Education from Indiana University. His research and scholarship focus on college access and success, student engagement, and higher education policy. Kathyrine Scheuch is the Deputy Director of Research and Evaluation in the Division of Community Colleges, Florida Department of Education. She received her Ed.D. in Higher Education from Florida State University. Her research interests include undergraduate research activities and minority student issues. Joy Gaston Gayles is Associate Professor of Higher Education at North Carolina State University. She received her Ph.D. in Higher Education from Ohio State University. Her research interests include the college student experience and its impact on student development and learning.     

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: A Zero Tolerance Professor and Student Registration Choices

College and university faculty and administrators are responsible for constructing academic honesty policies and communicating them to students. This is often attempted through institutional honesty policies and university-wide honor codes. While these approaches have been widely researched, less attention has been given to the role of individual faculty members. That role is examined in this study by addressing student reactions to professors based on their academic honesty policies. In addition to demographic information, data were gathered about student attitudes and beliefs concerning academic dishonesty and their decision to enroll in or avoid a course being taught by a professor with zero tolerance for academic dishonesty. The findings regarding different instructors’ approaches toward academic dishonesty indicate that an intolerant policy will keep dishonest students away, but at a price—it will also detract many honest students.     

The Effect of Teaching General Education Courses on Deep Approaches to Learning: How Disciplinary Context Matters

Building on work examining differences in the emphasis faculty place on effective educational practices, this study uses data from nearly 8,000 faculty members from the 2007 Faculty Survey of Student Engagement to explore how disciplinary area moderates the effect of teaching a general education course (GEC) on the emphasis faculty place on deep approaches to learning. Results showed that the GEC effect was strongest in hard-applied-life fields and weakest in hard-pure-life and soft-applied-life fields, suggesting that proponents of general education reform need to temper their efforts by a clearer understanding of disciplinary differences.     

The Mediating Effects of Student Engagement on the Relationships Between Academic Disciplines and Learning Outcomes: An Extension of Holland’s Theory

This research examined the relationships among students?? academic majors, levels of engagement, and learning outcomes within the context of Holland??s person?Cenvironment theory of vocational and educational behavior. The study focused on the role of student engagement as a mediating agent in the relationships between academic majors and student learning. Drawing on data from a stratified random sample of 20,000 seniors who participated in the 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement, results revealed that students?? academic majors were significantly related to levels of engagement and learning outcomes. Student engagement was also significantly related to learning outcomes. Students?? academic majors generally were not indirectly related to learning outcomes through levels of engagement. An important exception to this result was found for students in Enterprising environments where indirect relationships among Enterprising disciplines and Enterprising learning outcomes were positive, statistically significant, and substantially larger than the direct relationship.     

Defining appropriate professional behavior for faculty and university students on social networking websites

The vast majority of university students have profiles on social networking sites (e.g., Myspace, Facebook) (Salaway et al. 2008). However, it is yet to be determined what role this rapidly evolving method of communication will play in an academic setting. Data for the current study was collected from 459 university students and 159 university faculty members. Participants’ opinions regarding faculty/student interaction on social networking sties (SNSs) were analyzed. Over one-third of the students and a quarter of the faculty participants reported that it is inappropriate for faculty members to have accounts on SNSs. Significant disagreement existed between the faculty and students, as well as among the faculty and among the students regarding what constitutes appropriate professional professor/student interaction on SNSs.     

Comprehensive Cocurricular Support Promotes Persistence of Community College STEM Students

ABSTRACT

Despite good career prospects in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, persistence of students in STEM fields of study at the community college and transfer to universities to pursue STEM majors is often quite low. Theories of persistence emphasize the importance of engagement, integration, validation, and financial assistance. The DCCCD STEM Institute is a comprehensive cocurricular program for community college STEM students. It illustrates the application of persistence theories in a multicollege urban district with a diverse student body. The STEM Institute uses a student/faculty cohort model with mentoring, professional skills programming, and scholarship support to transform student perceptions of themselves, integrate them into a STEM educational community, and validate their membership within that community. Institute membership also reduces isolation and financial concerns as potential barriers to persistence. STEM faculty also participate in professional skill development through a cross-college and cross-disciplinary cohort. Data on students who participated in the DCCCD STEM Institute from 2010 through 2014 show that 92% remain in a STEM educational or career pathway. Important practice implications for community college professionals include (1) forming student and faculty cohorts, (2) facilitating the development of mentoring relationships, (3) providing adequate centralized staffing, and (4) integrating resources and opportunities into a unified cocurricular program.     

How Community College Faculty Members May Improve Student Learning Productivity in Their Online Courses

Eleven experienced community college faculty members were interviewed to elicit examples of how they improved student learning productivity in their online courses. The 11 faculty members represented eight different states, nine different fields or disciplines, and all were permanent or full-time faculty members at community colleges in the southern or western states. Based on a thematic analysis of the examples given, improvement in student learning occurred by (a) emphasizing seven approaches to increase student engagement, (b) using six different structuring tactics to focus student attention on learning, (c) using assessment techniques to improve learning, and (d) pursuing a personal passion for online teaching. These findings suggest that faculty can and do find ways to use different tools in different ways to improve student learning productivity in community colleges.     

Understanding student learning in context: relationships between university students’ social identity,approaches to learning,and academic performance

This research focuses on understanding how socio-psychological dimensions such as student social identity and student perceptions of their learning community affect learning at university. To do this, it integrates ideas from phenomenographic research into student learning with ideas from research on social identity. In two studies (N = 110, and N = 97) the relationships between student social identity, perceptions of the learning community, approaches to learning, and academic performance were explored. Our findings suggest that a strong student social identity is associated with a deep approach to learning, which in turn is linked to higher academic performance. Also, perceptions of learning community mediate the relationship between student social identity and deep approaches to learning. Significantly, a surface approach turns out not to be associated with student social identity or perceptions of the learning community, but it is negatively related to academic performance. Our research argues for the value of an integration of complementary frameworks, emphasising social and psychological aspects of the learning experience that can be used to improve our understanding of how and why students vary in the quality of their learning.