The impact of institutional culture,policy and process on student engagement in university decision-making

There is a strong focus on the importance of student engagement in higher education, with increasing attention on how students can participate in their university’s decision-making processes. Yet, although the concept appears to be almost universally accepted, it is rarely problematised. This has led some commentators to conclude that student engagement lacks theoretical clarity. Consequently, an increasing number of authors have sought to address this. This paper adds to those efforts by proposing a model for student engagement that recognises the importance of institutional action in facilitating different types of participation. These are aligned with expectations for student activity, but the key message is that the university shapes its students’ engagement. This reinforces arguments that engagement needs to be cognisant of the power dynamics of higher education. In line with this, the paper borrows from debates around public participation to enhance understanding of student engagement in institutional governance.     

Unpacking the career aspirations of Australian school students: towards an evidence base for university equity initiatives in schools

Demand for higher education in Australia has doubled since 1989, increasing the number of students from diverse social, economic and academic backgrounds. Equity targets have seen a proliferation of programs and interventions aimed at encouraging school students, particularly those from low socio-economic status backgrounds, to participate in higher education. However, little is known about the specific occupational interests of school students upon which targeted strategies might effectively be designed and implemented. This paper examines school students’ aspirations for specific careers that require a university education, in relation to student background and school-related variables. The analysis draws from a study of 6492 students from Years 3 to 12 in 64 New South Wales public schools. We found a complex array of factors relating to interest in different careers. Year level at school, gender and prior achievement were stronger predictors across many careers than factors such as SES, Indigenous status and school location. We argue that rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach to encouraging participation in higher education, outreach activities should be targeted to take account of student diversity and inequalities that foster differing aspirations.     

FROM PRESERVICE PREPARATION TO WORKING LIFE: CAREER EXPERIENCES OF EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS IN FINLAND

ABSTRACT

This is a case study of four students in an early childhood teacher preparation program at a large, state university that intentionally seeks to emphasize supporting children and families from diverse backgrounds and using culturally responsive pedagogy. The program includes a family engagement course in the first semester that is designed to facilitate students’ recognition of the perspectives of diverse families, as well as practica in schools serving children and families from a range of backgrounds. Our investigation revealed that not all of our participants were willing to completely let go of their preconceived understandings of family diversity and engagement, but those who did were very willing to try multiple ways of building mutually beneficial relationships with families. Our findings suggest that teacher educators must have an understanding of the cultural and family backgrounds of teacher preparation students so as to better support students in decentering and resisting normalizing their own family and school experiences.     

Engaged outreach: using community engagement to facilitate access to higher education for people from low socio‐economic backgrounds

Despite ongoing equity initiatives, there is still a clear discrepancy in regards to access to higher education for potential students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. This paper reports on an action research initiative that has developed a model of engaged outreach as an alternative approach to traditional university outreach. Engaged outreach uses the principles of higher education community engagement to develop stronger relationships between universities and their local communities for the purposes of increasing aspiration and access to higher education. The project was designed using a reflective, collaborative process with local Pacific Island immigrant communities living in an area of high social deprivation in southeast Queensland, Australia. Research progressed in three key stages, which together form the basis of the proposed model of engaged outreach. While it is acknowledged that the success of engaged outreach will depend on its implementation as a long‐term strategy, preliminary results from this pilot project suggest that it demonstrates real potential to address this important but seemingly entrenched issue in Australian higher education.     

Transcultural analysis of the effectiveness of a program to promote self-regulated learning in Mozambique,Chile, Portugal,and Spain

The current investigation aims at assessing the effectiveness of an intervention program designed to enhance self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies at the university level, with students from different cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds. The central tool of the program is a set of letters in which a fictional first-year student describes his experiences as an SRL student. The program was implemented in four universities in different countries and continents (Portugal, Spain, Chile, and Mozambique), with an experimental group and a comparison group at each university (263 students from experimental groups and 247 from comparison groups). Findings display the effectiveness of the program in enhancing a set of motivational variables related to the study process and the use of SRL strategies. Data were consistent across the different cultural and academic contexts in which the program was implemented. The implications of these findings for university administrators and faculty are discussed.     

不同大学生群体创造力发展水平的比较——基于对北京城市学院学生的调查分析

本文采用"典型行为的创造性思维能力测验"量表对北京城市学院的530名学生进行调查分析,探讨不同大学生群体创造力发展水平的特点。结果显示,不同专业、年级、性别对大学生创造力发展水平有显著影响;生源地、独生子女的影响差异不明显;学习成绩排名与大学生创造力发展有一定相关性,学优生的优势显著高于其它学生。     

Therapy Dogs on Campus: A Counseling Outreach Activity for College Students Preparing for Final Exams

A university counseling center engaged a therapy dog program for an outreach activity to reduce stress as students prepare for final exams at a large culturally diverse university. This article describes the rationale, planning, and implementation of the activity; presents an evaluation summary; and provides recommendations and implications for counselors interested in using a similar activity. A large and diverse student population attended the activity and gave primarily positive feedback for this low‐cost group activity.     

Community Consultation and Intervention: Supporting Students Who Do Not Access Counseling Services

Although the severity of psychological problems among college students and the demand for campus counseling services has increased, many students who could benefit from mental health services still do not access them. This article describes Community Consultation and Intervention, a program designed to support students who are unlikely to access professional help despite the best efforts of traditional counseling center outreach. Community Consultation and Intervention reaches into the campus community to intervene by advising faculty and staff who may be the only contact for a distressed student, taking on a nontraditional “student support” role in direct interactions with students, offering advocacy when university systems or other environmental stressors precipitate psychological problems, and providing case management and crisis intervention services on behalf of the university when troubled students are especially concerning and disruptive to their communities. The most novel element of the program—the student support role—is distinct from conventional counseling in that it privileges problem solving, support, advice, and advocacy over focusing on emotions and other traditional mental health interventions. Case studies and programmatic challenges are described.     

Identifying attrition risk based on the first year experience

Using data collected from a recent national survey of Australian first-year students, this paper defines and validates four scales – belonging, feeling supported, intellectual engagement and workload stress – to measure the student experience of university. These scales provide insights into the university experience for both groups and individual students, to assist institutions in supporting and managing successful outcomes for their students. These data highlight the particular importance of a sense of belonging and mitigating workload stress to addressing attrition risk. Many traditional equity groups were found to only differ significantly from ‘traditional’ students on the stress scale. However, these groups potentially contain enormous individual variation, and even the average experiences of these groups reveal that complexity in the engagement, motivation and sense of belonging of students from equity backgrounds. Importantly, the scales presented in this paper can easily be used by practitioners, researchers and institutions to identify risk of attrition at an individual level based on attitudinal factors rather than background or behavioural factors. This may inform university strategy and practice to enhance the student experience and increase retention across the sector.     

Why lecturers still matter: the impact of lecturer-student exchange on student engagement and intention to leave university prematurely

This research examines the impact of lecturer-student exchange (student-LMX) on engagement, course satisfaction, achievement, and intention to leave university prematurely for 363 students in one Australian university. Survey and grade point average (GPA) data were collected from domestic undergraduate first- and second-year students and analysed using structural equation modelling. The results indicated that student’s levels of engagement and course satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between student-LMX and intention to leave university, when demographic and socio-economic factors were controlled for. In an era when low student engagement and attrition is often attributed to individual demographic factors, and lecturers are under increasing threat of being replaced by technology, this research offers compelling evidence regarding the role of lecturer-student relationships in enhancing tertiary student outcomes.     

A face in a sea of faces: exploring university students’ reasons for non-attendance to teaching sessions

In the past 20 years, the landscape of Higher Education in the United Kingdom has changed considerably. With the prospect of tuition fees spiralling above £9,000 per year, per student, it is important to explore the impact this has upon the student experience. In spite of the vast financial investment current students make towards their education, student attendance and engagement remain low. The present study therefore adopted a qualitative approach using focus groups to explore reasons for non-attendance at university teaching sessions. Four key themes emerged; these surrounded issues about a sense of belonging to university, views of the teaching (material taught and the personality and method of the tutor), perceptions of being a consumer and external pressures. This research suggests that universities should pay particular attention to the reasons why students do not attend and possibly change practice, providing more support where appropriate.     

You can’t ignore us: what role does family play in student engagement and alienation in a Ghanaian university?

Much of the existing literature on student engagement focuses on what happens within the higher education environment or what the institution has direct control over, restricting understanding of how issues outside of the institution affect engagement. This paper argues that efforts to improve student engagement should be broadened to incorporate issues relating to the family. It employed a case study design in order to develop a broad and more in-depth understanding of how family influences the amount of time and effort students invest in their learning in a large public university in Ghana. It was established that engagement is influenced by family expectation, financial and social support, as well as monitoring of students’ academic performance. The unique contribution of the study is that it broadens current understandings of engagement because it adds an aspect that has not been highlighted in current work on engagement, making a case for institutions to work more with families to get a broader understanding of challenges students face in order to provide comprehensive support.     

Degrees of co-creation: an exploratory study of perceptions of international students’ role in community engagement experiences

Increased competition for the international student market has motivated universities to modernize their marketing strategies. Community engagement is an important component of students' international university experience and represents a potential point of competitive advantage. Developing marketing strategies around university–student–community engagement (U–S–CE) requires an understanding of the perspectives of international students, the university and the community. We anchored our study in value co-creation which is a principle of the service dominant logic framework found in the marketing literature. With limited research in the area, a qualitative approach was appropriate. Interviews were undertaken with key university members (n?=?4) and community members (n?=?5) concurrently with focus groups of international students (n?=?22) at a single university. Based on the degree of co-creation by international students in U–S–CE, three groups emerged: consumers, collaborators and co-designers. This study offers theoretical and practical insight, providing a platform for further research into U–S–CE.     

基于大学生创新性实验计划下学生主体性的发展策略

大学生创新实验计划的实施与学生的主体性密不可分,两者是相互促进的关系。一方面,学生主体性的发挥是计划实施的基础,创新性实验计划依赖于学生主体性的发挥;另一方面,计划实施的最终目的是促进学生主体性的发展,创新性实验计划的实施彰显了学生的主体性。提出高校在实施大学生创新性实验计划时,应紧紧围绕大学生的主体性开展工作,通过营造良好环境、构建科研课程体系、创设保障体系等策略,培养学生的主体意识,促进学生主体性的发展。     

正确引导大学生亚文化积极推进大学生的研究型学习

由于学习化社会的发展和我国创新人才培养的需求,在大学生中开展研究型学习已经势在必行。本文首先论证了大学生研究型学习的本质,然后阐述了大学生亚文化将成为推进研究型学习的重要因素,最后提出了正确引导大学生亚文化的三点措施,即强化大学生的研究意识和社会责任意识;营造出学校平等、求实的学习氛围;实现大学生亚文化的相对稳定性与创造性的良性互动。     

合作学习视域下我国大学生创新能力构建

伴随着新技术的飞速发展,数字变革的加速到来,当代社会与经济复杂度日益加深。社会对于个体能力的要求也随之不断升级,特别是创新能力备受关注。大学教育作为为社会营造创新氛围,帮助学生提升创新能力的重要社会化历程,其理念和方法的选择尤显重要。文章尝试从社会语义下的大学生创新能力解读出发,基于社会认知、系统统合以及心智发展的视角,就合作学习教学模式如何有效促进大学生创新能力构建的逻辑机理展开理论探讨,进而结合实践从教师的角色与任务以及学生的自我管理与参与等层面,对教学环节中大学生创新能力构建的实现途径提出思考与建议。     

Effective university teaching: views of Australian university students from low socio-economic status backgrounds

As the Australian higher education population further diversifies as a result of federal government policy changes, the collective understanding of effective university teaching in the Australian context will need to evolve to incorporate such shifts. The Australian Government has set clear targets for increased university participation of people from low socio-economic status (LSES) backgrounds. While their performance is comparable to students from higher SES backgrounds, many LSES students face particular challenges in undertaking university study. Using a ‘success-focused’ (Devlin 2009) methodological approach, this research documents the factors that a sample of 53 later-year, LSES students at one Australian university report have assisted them to manage and overcome the challenges of remaining at, progressing through and succeeding in their studies. The most helpful factors included teacher availability to help, their enthusiasm and dedication; and their effective communication with students particularly but not exclusively around assessment requirements.     

Student engagement: rhetoric and reality

Recently, there has been much interest in higher education literature and policy on the concepts of student engagement and disengagement. While most academic writings recognise the significance of student engagement, they have tended to concentrate on it in relation to academic activities. Increasingly, universities are ‘cascading’ down the need to improve student engagement to schools and ultimately to individual academics. This article asserts that ideas about student engagement in the university context are often fragmented, contradictory and confused. Even the meaning of the term ‘student engagement’ is uncertain. Further, while government and universities urge attention to student engagement, many of their actions, it may be argued, have contributed to greater student disengagement. Relying on the available literature, we argue that the student experience as a whole is the key to engagement and, thus, efforts to re-engage students cannot be successful until a ‘whole-of-university’ approach is adopted.     

The student departure puzzle: do some faculties and programs have answers?

University attrition prevention strategies are typically generic, centrally managed, whole of university strategies that have emerged from an examination of whole of university attrition data. This paper takes an intra‐organisational comparative approach, through the examination of faculty and program attrition rates of students who joined an Australian university in the first term of 2004. The faculty with the highest attrition had a rate two‐and‐a‐half times that of the faculty with the lowest rate, and in programs with 40 or more students enrolled the program with the highest attrition had a rate over five times that of the program with the lowest rate. The paper identifies five practical implications of these findings and concludes that investigating the causes of these differences will help in understanding student attrition. It also suggests that universities wishing to reduce student attrition may benefit from adopting integrated and situated strategies that take into account faculty and program differences.     

高校思想政治教育的“学校-教师-学生”互动模式探究

从高校思想政治教育过程参与者的角度来说,学校、教师和学生共同构成了高校思想政治教育系统中的主体。在思想政治教育活动中,学校、教师和学生都具有自主性、主动性和创造性的主体性质。实现"学校-教师-学生"之间的良性互动,有助于增强高校思想政治教育的实效性,进而实现三方的共同发展。