Disinterested,disengaged, useless: Conservative or progressive idea of the university?

There is evidence aplenty of academics' increasing incorporation into the life and fate of their university's brand, just as it is clear that university structures and incentives generally are dependent upon increasingly competitive resource capture under tightened managerial ideologies of institutional commitment (albeit by way of innumerable “consultation” and “responsibilisation” mechanisms). In that context, it becomes important to re‐think and re‐imagine the very “idea of the university”, especially now that images and imperatives around the Engaged University are a) omnipresent and b) convene a whole range of entirely disparate activities, governed by very different intellectual rationales. While hardly wishing to be “against” university involvement in the “wider world”, this article critically questions the new metaphysic of Engagement, and the discursive framings and traps that sustain it. In an age when perhaps only paradox and counter‐intuitive gesturing seem to work as prompts towards thinking otherwise, I make the case that some “traditionalist” ideas of higher education can be part of a reasserted “progressivist” social ethics.     

How domain specific is motivation and engagement across school,sport, and music? A substantive–methodological synergy assessing young sportspeople and musicians

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the domain specificity (or otherwise) of motivation and engagement across academic, sport, and music domains using a survey-based methodology with parallel forms of the Motivation and Engagement Scale. The secondary purpose of the study was a methodological one seeking to test the most appropriate analytical means of assessing domain specificity. The sample comprised 329 young sportspeople (62% of total sample; 53% male; mean age 14 years) and classical musicians (38% of total sample; 40% male; mean age 14 years) in which target academic, sporting, and music domains are salient. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) led to the conclusion of modest domain specificity in motivation and engagement. This conclusion was based on fit indices for competing models, the size of parallel between-domain correlations, the proportion of shared variance between parallel domains, the number of within-domain correlations that were higher than parallel between-domain correlations, the decline in model fit when parallel correlations were constrained to be equal, and differences between parallel means. Notwithstanding this, constructs that were more trait-like evinced relatively less specificity. In terms of the secondary, methodological purpose, the study found that CFAs that correlated parallel uniquenesses resolved biased parameters found in raw scale score correlations that did not correct for unreliability and CFAs that did not correlate parallel uniquenesses. Together, findings hold implications for more targeted intervention, guidance for appropriate analysis in parallel domains using parallel measures, and more differentiated approaches to measurement.     

The role of personal best (PB) goals in the achievement and behavioral engagement of students with ADHD and students without ADHD

In the context of competitive classroom settings and relativistic assessment schedules, some groups of students may particularly benefit from an emphasis on personal progress and personal growth approaches to their academic development. Building on recent promising results from general samples of high school students (undifferentiated by academically at-risk sub-groups within them) and dominant models of attention and executive functioning, the present study examines the potential of personal best (PB) goals for students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The study focuses on N = 87 students with ADHD and N = 3374 non-ADHD peers from the same schools and year levels – in addition to a supplementary analysis of a randomly drawn non-ADHD sub-sample of N = 87 and a second supplementary analysis controlling for achievement. Multi-group multivariate path analyses demonstrated (a) significant and positive associations between PB goals and academic outcomes (achievement and behavioral engagement) for students with ADHD, (b) similar positive effects for non-ADHD students (N = 3374), (d) replicated results with the randomly drawn non-ADHD sub-sample (N = 87), (e) similar findings when controlling for achievement, and (f) absolute parameter estimates that trended larger for students with ADHD than non-ADHD students. These findings indicate that the positive role of PB goals may generalize across diverse student groups and that there appears to be merit in broadly promoting PB goals amongst ADHD (and, potentially, other academically at-risk students) and non-ADHD students alike.     

大学生过早实习:促进抑或阻碍学业参与?

低年级大学生参与实习,对学业参与具有促进还是阻碍作用?本文利用2010年首都高校学生发展调查数据,通过实证研究发现:相对于未参与实习的学生,实习有益于促进学业参与。进一步研究表明,多样化实习参与对学业参与的影响存在着显著差异。实习功能类型会显著影响学生的学业参与,随着实习功能由单一的专业知识互补转向兼具知识互补与经验累积的就业体验功能,实习对学业参与的强化效应愈强。同时,不同时长选择偏好的实习体验对学业参与的影响差异统计上均不显著。据此,本文建议高等院校应完善大学生就业体验型实习辅导制度,并预防大学生追求单一经验增长、忽略知识互补的实习行为。     

The effects of cooperative learning on peer relations,academic support,and engagement in learning among students of color

Abstract

Despite Brown vs. Board of Education, prejudice still exists in the American school system. These attitudes can give rise to negative social experiences for students of color (i.e., discrimination), negatively impacting their mental and physical health and creating disparities in educational outcomes. Rather than seeking to ameliorate these negative experiences, our approach attempts to address the underlying prejudices and, in so doing, reduce these disparities. Using 4 waves of data from a cluster randomized trial (N?=?15 middle schools, 1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White), we hypothesized that cooperative learning, which has been shown to reduce prejudice in previous research, would create positive gains in peer relatedness, perceptions of academic support, and engagement in learning, and that gains would be larger for students of color; our results confirmed these hypotheses. Our findings highlight the potential role of cooperative learning in reducing disparities and creating greater equity in education.     

Home,school and the museum: shifting gender performances and engagement with science

Abstract

Research has highlighted that engagement with science is highly gendered and that the masculinised culture of science makes it difficult for many girls/women to engage. Meanwhile, a growing body of research has explored the potential of out-of-school spaces to provide more equitable engagement opportunities. In this paper, I examine engagement with science among working-class, self-identified ‘girly’ girls aged 11-13. I discuss how gender performances and engagement with science shifted across science lessons, school trips and family trips to science museums. The findings suggest that engagement with science is complex, contradictory and varies across spaces – girls’ performances of hyper-femininity supported engagement with science in some spaces, but made it difficult in others. Different spaces also afforded the girls different opportunities for performing gender, which in some instances opened up new ways for engaging with science. I conclude by discussing the implications for more equitable science education.     

Secondary teachers’ conceptions of student engagement: Engagement in learning or in schooling?

Teacher actions can influence how students engage at school, making it relevant to understand their conceptions of student engagement and how to facilitate it. Reviews of existing literature suggested that a distinction between engagement in schooling and engagement in learning might help differentiate between social and academic outcomes.Data from a phenomenographic study of 20 Australian teachers were analysed to show how teacher thinking related to this distinction. While some teachers held complex conceptions centred on promoting cognitive engagement and student learning, others aligned with engagement in schooling, focusing on generating participation and emphasising positive student affective experiences.     

Academic Libraries and Engagement: A Critical Contextualization of the Library Discourse on Engagement

This article argues that the concept of engagement as it is used in the academic library literature requires greater structure and depth if the librarian community intends to appropriate and advance the usage of a phrase that resonates loudly across higher education. In reviewing the literature around engagement as well as in introducing critical perspectives from outside the library literature, this literature review and investigation demonstrates that engagement is a variously defined and used term that is both difficult to nail down but is essential to the healthy participation of an academic library in its respective community. The external perspectives introduced stem from the behavioral, psychological, and conceptual organizational approach to student engagement, whose application to academic libraries could be strengthened with a more critical grounding in the compelling terms and discourses of engagement as they are understood by those outside libraries. The framework of intellectual capital is introduced as a productive way of capturing the differing definitions and usages of the terms ‘student engagement’ and ‘engagement’.     

Student Experiences With Information Technology And Their Relationship To Other Aspects Of Student Engagement

Colleges and universities have made considerable effort to get students to use information technology productively. This study uses data from the 2003 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to investigate the relationships between student uses of information technology and other forms of student engagement. There appears to be a strong positive relationship between using information technology for educational purposes and involvement in effective educational practices such as active and collaborative learning and student–faculty interaction. The results also point to the prospect that particular areas of involvement with information technology could be viewed as forms of engagement in and of themselves. In addition, when students use information technology it may increase their opportunities for other types of engagement.     

人工智能时代下的精准减负：提升减负政策效能的关键——基于小学生学习投入与主观课业负担类型的划分及特征分析

不同类型学生群体的个性特点与统一政策相冲突是减负政策实施的阻力之一,厘清投入和负担之间的非线性关系是科学减负的基础。研究采用聚类分析等方法探索了学生在校内外学习投入与主观课业负担的潜在分类,并从个体的学业成就、学习品质及其人际关系等角度探索了各类学生的发展特征。研究发现:(1)学生的负担情况不能一概而论,有的需要减负、有的需要增加时间投入、有的需要提升学习品质,学生可根据学习投入与主观课业负担的状况分为"低投高负型""低投低负型""高投高负型""高投低负型"等四种类型。(2)不同类型的学生无论是在学业成就、人际关系还是在影响学生终生发展的学习品质上的表现均存在显著差异。(3)减轻负担的核心在于提升学生的学习品质等非学业方面的素养,无论学习投入程度如何,学习品质表现好的学生的负担感受均较低。因此,人工智能时代下建立对学生的负担状况进行科学分类的精确诊断系统是必要的,不同类型的学生应采取个性化的减负方案,利用智能化的自适应学习系统提升学生的学习品质是减负的核心路径。