Sharing Responsibility for Engaging First-Year Students

1. Sharing Responsibility • for Engaging First-Year Students • George D. Kuh • FYHE Conference • Brisbane • July 4, 2007

2. We all want the same thing—an undergraduate experience that results in high levels of learning and personal development for all students.

3. Overview • Why engagement matters in the first year • Lessons from high-performing institutions • Implications for policy and practice

4. Advance Organizers • To what extent do your students engage in productive learning activities, inside and outside the classroom? • How do you know? • What must you do differently -- or better -- to enhance student success?

5. Student Success in College Academic achievement, engagement in educationally purposeful activities, satisfaction, acquisition of desired knowledge, skills and competencies, persistence, attainment of educational objectives, and post-college performance

6. Academic preparation Ability and college-level skills Family education and support Financial wherewithal Pre-college Characteristics Associated with Student Success

7. Goal realization Psycho-social fit Credit hours completed Academic and social support Involvement in the “right” kinds of activities Early College Indicators of Persistence and Success

8. What Really Matters in College: Student Engagement Because individual effort and involvement are the critical determinants of impact, institutions should focus on the ways they can shape their academic, interpersonal, and extracurricular offerings to encourage student engagement. Pascarella & Terenzini, How College Affects Students, 2005, p. 602

9. Foundations of Student Engagement Time on task (Tyler, 1930s) Quality of effort (Pace, 1960-70s) Student involvement (Astin, 1984) Social, academic integration (Tinto,1987, 1993) Good practices in undergraduate education (Chickering & Gamson, 1987) Outcomes (Pascarella, 1985) Student engagement (Kuh, 1991, 2005)

10. Pascarella’s (1985) causal model: Effects of college student development Student development • Students • Aptitude • Achievement • Personality • Aspiration • Ethnicity

11. Pascarella’s (1985) causal model • Institution • Enrollment • Faculty-student ratio • Selectivity • % Residential Student development • Students • Aptitude • Achievement • Personality • Aspiration • Ethnicity

12. Pascarella’s (1985) causal model • Institution • Enrollment • Faculty-student ratio • Selectivity • % Residential • Interactions with • faculty • peers Student development • Students • Aptitude • Achievement • Personality • Aspiration • Ethnicity

13. Pascarella’s (1985) causal model • Institution • Enrollment • Faculty-student ratio • Selectivity • % Residential • Interactions with • faculty • peers Student development • Students • Aptitude • Achievement • Personality • Aspiration • Ethnicity Institutional Environment

14. Pascarella’s (1985) causal model • Institution • Enrollment • Faculty-student ratio • Selectivity • % Residential • Interactions with • faculty • peers Student development • Students • Aptitude • Achievement • Personality • Aspiration • Ethnicity Institutional Environment Engagement

15. Student Engagement Trinity • What students do -- time and energy devoted to educationally purposeful activities • What institutions do -- using effective educational practices to induce students to do the right things • Educationally effective institutions channel student energy toward the right activities

16. Good Practices in Undergraduate Education(Chickering & Gamson, 1987; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005) • Student-faculty contact • Active learning • Prompt feedback • Time on task • High expectations • Respect for diverse learning styles • Cooperation among students

17. National Survey of Student Engagement(pronounced “nessie”)Community College Survey of Student Engagement(pronounced “cessie”) College student surveys that assess the extent to which students engage in educational practices associated with high levels of learning and development

18. AUSSIE 2007 Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) is being developed by ACER for Australasian higher education institutions. It will yield generalisable information about university education sensitive to institutional diversity that will allow institutions to monitor and enhance the quality of education.

19. NSSE Survey Student Behaviors Student Learning & Development Institutional Actions & Requirements Reactions to People & Environment Student Background Information

20. In your experience at your institution during the current school year, about how often have you done each of the following? 1

24. Effective Educational Practices Level of Academic Challenge Active & Collaborative Learning Student- Faculty Interaction Supportive Campus Environment Enriching Educational Experiences

25. Grades, persistence, student satisfaction, and engagement go hand in hand

26. Student engagement varies more within than between institutions.

27. Level of Academic Challenge: Seniors at Doc-Extensive Schools Percentile 10 Percentile 50 Percentile 90 100 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Doc-Extensive Institutions

28. Supportive Campus Environment: Seniors at Master's Institutions Percentile 10 Percentile 50 Percentile 90 100 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Master's Institutions

29. Worth Pondering How do we reach our least engaged students?

30. Behold the compensatory effects of engagement

35. Comparison of Distance Education and Campus-Based Learners

36. Comparison of Distance Education and Campus-Based Learners

37. Faculty Survey of Student Engagement(pronounced “fessie”) FSSE measures faculty expectations and activities related to student engagement in effective educational practices

38. AVG STUDENT Acad emic Act ive - Diversity Stu dent - AVG FACULTY c hall enge c ollab e xperiences f ac ulty A c ad emic chall enge ü ü ü emph asis Act ive - collab ü ü ü ü practices Emph asis on diversity ü ü ü experiences Emph asis on h igher ü ü ü order thinking Imp ortance enriching ü ü ü ed uc e xp eriences Faculty Priorities and Student Engagement

39. What to Make of This? • When faculty members emphasize certain educational practices, students engage in them to a greater extent than their peers elsewhere. • Good things go together

40. What does an educationally effective university look like?

41. Project DEEP To discover, document, and describe what high performing institutions do to achieve their notable level of effectiveness.

42. *Higher-than predicted NSSE scores and graduation rates DEEP Schools* Liberal Arts California State, Monterey Bay Macalester College Sweet Briar College The Evergreen State College Sewanee: University of the South Ursinus College Wabash College Wheaton College (MA) Wofford College Baccalaureate General Alverno College University of Maine at Farmington Winston-Salem State University Doctoral Extensives University of Kansas University of Michigan Doctoral Intensives George Mason University Miami University (Ohio) University of Texas El Paso Master’s Granting Fayetteville State University Gonzaga University Longwood University

43. Effective Educational Practices Level of Academic Challenge Active & Collaborative Learning Student- Faculty Interaction Supportive Campus Environment Enriching Educational Experiences

44. Ponder This • Which of these areas needs attention right now at your institution? • What might you do about it?

45. Academic Challenge Intentional socialization to academic expectations Wheaton new students read a common book and essays by faculty that respond to the reading. Assigned readings, faculty responses, and the website combine to introduce incoming students to preferred ways to grapple with intellectual issues.

46. Academic Challenge Learning-intensive practices George Mason and CSUMB require every student to take from 1-3 writing-intensive courses. They along with most DEEP schools have strong writing centers to emphasize and support the importance of good writing.

47. Academic Challenge Learning-intensive practices Sewanee’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Program includes four writing-intensive courses that introduce the cultural history of the western world. The program is team-taught using a mix of lectures and small discussion sections.

48. Academic Challenge Learning-intensive practices Ursinus College’s Common Intellectual Experience (CIE) is a two-semester course for first year students. Common readings and the “Uncommon Hour” provides opportunities for students to have a shared intellectual experience outside the classroom that complements class activities.

49. Active and Collaborative Learning Ample applied learning opportunities • CSUMB requires all students to complete a lower and upper-level service learning experience

50. Active and Collaborative Learning Ample applied learning opportunities University of Maine at Farmington’s Student Work Initiative employs students in meaningful work in student services, laboratories, and field-research. Such experiences provide opportunities to apply what they are learning to practical, real-life situations.