Academic involvement at university

The call for students to become more involved in their academic study is not new. However few studies have investigated academic involvement as it is experienced by university students. This paper discusses the results of a study that was designed to explore student perceptions of the nature of academic involvement in learning. In addition students were asked to identify factors in their learning experience that encouraged or discouraged their academic involvement. The results reported here are drawn from interviews with 58 first and second year students attending Victoria University of Wellington.The results demonstrate that students experience involvement in qualitatively and quantitatively different ways that appear to be related to approach to learning. A major focus of the paper is on the interactive role personal and contextual factors play in the development of involvement. It is suggested that such factors combine to produce a particular learning climate that directly affects involvement in learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this research for university policy, teaching practice and course design and makes some suggestions for further research.