Transcript Slide 1

Sharing Responsibility
for Engaging First-Year
Students
George D. Kuh
FYHE Conference
Brisbane
July 4, 2007
We all want the same thing—an
undergraduate experience that
results in high levels of learning
and personal development for all
students.
Overview
 Why engagement matters in
the first year
 Lessons from highperforming institutions
 Implications for policy and
practice
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?
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 postcollege performance
Pre-college Characteristics
Associated with Student Success
Academic preparation
Ability and college-level skills
Family education and support
Financial wherewithal
Early College Indicators of
Persistence and Success
 Goal realization
 Psycho-social fit
 Credit hours completed
 Academic and social support
 Involvement in the “right” kinds
of activities
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
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)
Pascarella’s (1985) causal model:
Effects of college student development
Student
development
Students
•Aptitude
•Achievement
•Personality
•Aspiration
•Ethnicity
Pascarella’s (1985) causal model
Institution
•Enrollment
•Faculty-student
ratio
•Selectivity
•% Residential
Student
development
Students
•Aptitude
•Achievement
•Personality
•Aspiration
•Ethnicity
Pascarella’s (1985) causal model
Institution
•Enrollment
•Faculty-student
ratio
•Selectivity
•% Residential
Interactions with
faculty
•peers
Student
development
Students
•Aptitude
•Achievement
•Personality
•Aspiration
•Ethnicity
Pascarella’s (1985) causal model
Institution
•Enrollment
•Faculty-student
ratio
•Selectivity
•% Residential
Students
•Aptitude
•Achievement
•Personality
•Aspiration
•Ethnicity
Interactions with
faculty
•peers
Student
development
Institutional
Environment
Pascarella’s (1985) causal model
Institution
•Enrollment
•Facultystudent ratio
•Selectivity
•% Residential
Students
•Aptitude
Interactions with
faculty
•peers
Student
development
Institutional
Environment
•Achievement
•Personality
•Aspiration
•Ethnicity
Engagement
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
Good Practices in
Undergraduate Education
(Chickering & Gamson, 1987;
Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005)
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Student-faculty contact
Active learning
Prompt feedback
Time on task
High expectations
Respect for diverse learning styles
Cooperation among students
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
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.
NSSE Survey
Student Behaviors
Institutional Actions &
Requirements
Reactions to People
& Environment
Student Background
Information
Student
Learning &
Development
In your experience at your institution
during the current school year, about how
often have you done each of the following?
1
Effective Educational Practices
Level of
Academic
Challenge
StudentFaculty
Interaction
Enriching
Educational
Experiences
Active &
Collaborative
Learning
Supportive
Campus
Environment
Grades, persistence,
student satisfaction,
and engagement go
hand in hand
Student engagement varies
more within than between
institutions.
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
Doc-Extensive Institutions
12
13
14
15
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
Master's Institutions
10
11
12
13
14
Worth Pondering
How do we reach
our least engaged
students?
Behold the compensatory
effects of engagement
Comparison of Distance Education and
Campus-Based Learners
Benchmarks of Effective
Educational Practice
First-Year Senior
Level of academic challenge
+
+
Active & collaborative learning
–
–
Student-faculty interaction
+
=
Enriching educational experiences
+
=
Supportive campus environment
=
+
Comparison of Distance Education and
Campus-Based Learners
Gains
First-Year Senior
Practical competence
+
+
Personal & social devlpmt
+
+
General education
=
+
Satisfaction
=
+
Faculty Survey of
Student Engagement
(pronounced “fessie”)
FSSE measures
faculty expectations
and activities related
to student
engagement in
effective educational
practices
Faculty Priorities and
Student Engagement
AVG STUDENT
AVG FACULTY
Acad emic
challenge
Active collab
Diversity
experiences
Academic chall enge
emphasis
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Active -collab
practices
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Emphasis on diversity
experiences
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Emphasis on higher
order thinking
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Importance enriching
educ exp eriences
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Stu dent faculty
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
What to Make of This?
1. When faculty members
emphasize certain educational
practices, students engage in
them to a greater extent than
their peers elsewhere.
2. Good things go together
What does an
educationally effective
university look like?
Project DEEP
To discover,
document, and
describe what high
performing
institutions do to
achieve their
notable level of
effectiveness.
DEEP Schools*
Doctoral Extensives
University of Kansas
University of Michigan
Doctoral Intensives
George Mason University
Miami University (Ohio)
University of Texas El Paso
Master’s Granting
*Higher-than
predicted NSSE
scores and
graduation rates
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
Fayetteville State University
Alverno College
Gonzaga University
University of Maine at Farmington
Longwood University
Winston-Salem State University
Effective Educational Practices
Level of
Academic
Challenge
StudentFaculty
Interaction
Enriching
Educational
Experiences
Active &
Collaborative
Learning
Supportive
Campus
Environment
Ponder This
1. Which of these areas needs
attention right now at your
institution?
2. What might you do about it?
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.
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.
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 teamtaught using a mix of lectures and
small discussion sections.
Academic Challenge
Learning-intensive practices
Ursinus College’s Common
Intellectual Experience (CIE) is a twosemester 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.
Active and Collaborative Learning
Ample applied learning opportunities
• CSUMB requires all students to
complete a lower and upper-level
service learning experience
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 fieldresearch. Such experiences provide
opportunities to apply what they are
learning to practical, real-life situations.
Student-Faculty Interaction
Community celebrations of
scholarship
UMF hosts “Spring Symposium” a day
when no classes are held and all students
and faculty are given the opportunity to
present research, artistic, intellectual, and
other creative projects, and learn from
others.
Student-Faculty Interaction
Undergraduate research opportunities
Miami’s Undergraduate Summer Scholars
(USS) program enables students to do
research or other creative activities in the
summer under the supervision of faculty. In
the fall, a Symposium provides
opportunities to present projects to
students and faculty. “Having a Summer
Scholar in the classroom enhances the
learning of all students.”
Student-Faculty Interaction
Early exposure to faculty
Winston Salem State, discipline-specific
orientation activities immediately
immerse students in the culture of
facilitate early bonds with faculty. These
faculty members eventually become one
of the most influential adults in students’
academic lives, making sure they are
successful in all aspects of college life.
Student-Faculty Interaction
Insuring opportunities for studentfaculty contact
Fayetteville State creates opportunities for
faculty members to “touch” students in a
meaningful way:
• Minority Biomedical Research Support
(MBRS)
• Research Initiative for Scientific
Enhancement project (RISE)
• Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority
Participation (LSAMP)
• Departmental student organizations
• Freshman Instructors provide academic,
career and personal counseling
Student-Faculty Interaction
Insuring opportunities for
student-faculty contact
Longwood University students have the
same faculty member as their advisor
for all four years.
• “If you are not in your office with the
door open, people wonder if something
is wrong with you…”
Enriching Educational Experiences
Cross-cultural experiences
Alverno and George Mason intentionally
craft shorter study abroad experiences
that meet the needs of their large nontraditional population. Similarly, Kansas
and UMF arrange class-based trips that
are more accessible to their first
generation students
Enriching Educational Experience
Out of class learning opportunities
UTEP conducts a series of funded
leadership retreats, programs, and
institutes that develop student’s
capacity to engage in conversations
about diversity, to develop leadership
skills, and to enhance their academic
skills as they become peer leaders in
their programs
Enriching Experiences
Connecting campus and community
Macalester College’s “Into the Streets”
event is part of the required first-year
seminar, taking students into local
neighborhoods to do community
service. Half of all students participate
in internships; 90% do a senior
capstone project.
Enriching Educational Experiences
Required Enriching Experiences
All Ursinus students complete an
Independent Learning Experience (ILE),
such as an independent research or
creative project, internship, study abroad,
student teaching, or summer fellow
program or comparable summer research
program.
Supportive Campus Environment
• Intentionally orchestrated,
educationally purposeful peer
interaction
Longwood values “students helping other
students” as a catalyst to promote student
achievement and learning and “to wake up
students’ volunteerism and academic pursuits.”
Peer mentors in the Longwood Seminar,
residence halls leadership roles, and the strong
co-curricular program makes this possible.
Supportive Campus Environment
Multiple interventions woven together
At CSUMB:
Library Staff assists Capstone students
to further develop their research
questions and archive of Capstone
projects
Senior research projects celebrated at
Capstone Conferences (Dec., May)
Describe under-served students as
“vision students,” underscoring their
importance at the institution
Supportive Campus Environment
Organized learning support
POSSE (Pathways to Student Success
and Excellence) students at U of
Michigan are assigned to a counselor and
learn the importance of faculty office
hours, study tips and how to connect to
tutoring services.
“POSSE taught me how to survive the
University of Michigan.”
Supportive Campus Environment
Tag team for student success
Wheaton first-year student advising
team includes faculty, student
preceptors, librarians and
administrative staff.
At Ursinus, Miami, and Wheaton
representatives from both academic
affairs and student affairs serve as
academic advisors.
Part 2
Select a cluster of effective
educational practices:
1. What programs and practices are
working well now?
2. What improvements can be made?
3. What additional efforts are needed
for particular groups of students?
4. What resources are required to
implement the most important of
these?
5. What obstacles must be overcome?
Remember This
Many roads to an engaging,
student-centered institution
 No one best model
 Different combinations of
complementary, interactive,
synergistic conditions
 Anything worth doing is
worth doing well at scale
PPT will be posted
to FYHE Web site
Questions &
Discussion