Students' Academic and Social Engagement and Perceptions of College Experience: Results of a Study in a Portuguese Higher Education Institution

Author(s):

Sofia De Lurdes Rosas Da Silva(presenting / submitting)Joaquim Armando Gomes Ferreira António Gomes Ferreira

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 02 A, Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Higher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-02

15:15-16:45

Room:

B020 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Roeland van der Rijst

Contribution

There are many studies that show us evidences of the positive effects that certain stimulating educational practices provided by higher education institutions present to students' psychosocial growth, particularly those that arrange students with the opportunities for effective academic and social engagement (Astin, 1993; Kuh, Schuh, Whitt, Andreas, Lyons, Strange, Krehbiel, & MacKay, 1991; Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, Whitt, & Associates, 2005; Kuh, Kinzie, Buckley, Bridges, & Hayek, 2006; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005).

In this line of research, it has been given emphasis to students' engagement, mainly because it has been shown that the more a student gets involved in enriching educational activities, the more he learns and grows (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). Additionally, several studies reveal that students' engagement also appears to be closely attached to academically and socially stimulating or engaging contexts (Astin, 1993; Kuh, 2008; Kuh et al., 1991, 2005, 2006).

Thus, student engagement is not only regarded as the time and effort devoted by students to educational activities considered beneficial for their development, but it also refers to what institutions can do to encourage or induce students to participate at these educational activities (Kuh, 2008, 2009).

There is a set of practices and educational situations viewed as highly engaging and stimulating, which can be grouped into five main areas: institutional environment (intellectually stimulating, inclusive and supportive), involvement (through opportunities to engage in meaningful and enriching educational activities, both curricular as extracurricular), interaction with teachers (frequent contact between students and teachers, prompt feedback about teaching-learning situations, provision of social support, use of active learning methodologies), interaction with peers (supportive relationships and cooperation among students, collaborative learning situations, joint participation in curricular and extracurricular) and institutional policies (coordination between institutional goals and educational practices).

There are several studies reporting that these "engaging" practices are positively associated with a set of desirable outcomes: student satisfaction, higher levels of academic performance, personal, social and intellectual gains (Astin, 1993; Kuh, 2001, 2008, 2009; Kuh et al., 1991, 2005, 2006; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). Moreover, other studies are showing that the more students get involved in curricular and extracurricular academic tasks, the more positive become their perceptions about institutional environment, interactions with teachers and peers (Cicognani, Pirini, Keyes, Joshanloo, Rostami, & Nosratabadi, 2008; Elkins, Forrester, & Noel-Elkins, 2011).).

Guided by these assumptions, this study sought to measure student involvement in academic and extracurricular activities and evaluate its effect on students' perceptions about: the institutional environment, interaction with teachers, interaction with peers and gains obtained from college experience.

The ultimate and long term goal of this ongoing research project is to enhance the quality of institutional educational practices within a broader European project whose framework started by Bologna.

Method

The present study sought to understand if there were any significant differences depending on the greater or lesser engaged students were in curricular and extracurricular activities in terms of their perceptions regarding institutional environment, teacher-student interaction, interaction with peers and perception of gains acquired from collegiate experience. For this study, the sample consists of 576 students, from 1st year (n = 195), 2nd year (n = 187) and 3rd year (n = 194), selected from a target population of 1673 students, attending a Portuguese higher education institution located in Coimbra. To assess our variables we used Scales (with likert response format of 5 points) designed for the purpose of this research (Silva, 2012): Institutional Environment, Teacher-Student Interaction, Involvement, Interaction with Peers, Perception of Gains. The Institutional Environment Scale includes 20 items sorted by two subscales: Intellectual Stimuli (10 items that evaluate students' perceptions of institutional encouragement for intellectual, academic and personal growth) and Sense of Community (10 items, which assess students' sense of belonging to the institution). The Teacher-Student Interaction Scale consists of 26 items organized into three factors: Pedagogical Interaction and Management (10 items) that assess students' perceptions of teachers' behaviors in terms of their pedagogical competence; Students' Contact with Teachers (10 items) that asks students to report behaviors of search for academic contact with their teachers; finally, Perceived Social Support (6 items), assesses the presence of a supportive interaction with teachers. The Involvement Scale (20 items) was designed to measure students' Academic Involvement (11 items) both inside and outside the classroom, as well as their investment in learning tasks. The other 9 items aimed to measure Involvement in Extracurricular Activities, including students' participation in social and recreational, associative or collegiate activities. The Interaction with the Peers Scale has 15 items that measure Perceived Peer Support (11 items) or the perception of quality of the relationships with peers when performing social and academics tasks. The remaining 4 items, which integrate the Participation in Recreational Activities, evaluate students' participation with their peers in recreational activities. To measure the perception of gains in academic, intellectual and psychosocial domains, scales were designed for each of the following constructs: Intellectual Competence, Autonomy and Self-Confidence, Interpersonal Competence, Values, Self-control and Academic Self-Competence. Exploratory studies with Principal Components Analysis have shown interpretable results for all scales. Good indices of internal consistency were obtained for all subscales (Alpha of Cronbach >.70).

Expected Outcomes

Our study was supported on the assumption that students more involved in academic and in extracurricular activities have more positive perceptions about institutional environment, interaction with teachers, and interaction with peers. These students, more academically engaged, also seem to report more gains or growth during college years at intellectual, psychosocial and academic domains. Considering academic involvement, our ANOVA's results confirmed that students more involved showed higher mean values, statistically significant, at institutional environment, interaction with teachers, interaction with peers (perception of support), intellectual competence, autonomy and self-confidence, interpersonal skills, values, and academic self-competence. Concerning extracurricular activities involvement, ANOVA's results also confirmed that students with higher levels of involvement revealed higher mean values, statistically significant, at institutional environment, interaction with teachers (perception of support, contact with teachers), interaction with peers, intellectual competence, interpersonal skills, self-control and academic self-competence. Somehow our data confirm the main findings of the literature. With regard to academic involvement, how much students invest in learning has been associated with gains in intellectual, psychosocial and academic domains. On the other hand, it has also been widely recognized the educational role of students' engagement in a number of extracurricular activities and of students' interaction with peers (Astin, 1993; Carini & Kuh, 2003; Kuh, 2008, 2009; Kuh et al., 1991, 2005, 2006; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Terenzini et al., 1995). These data, plus the fact that more involved students show more positive perceptions of the institutional environment, interaction with teachers and peers, plead for the defense of promoting educational practices that encourage student engagement not only in more traditional academic tasks as well as in others of a more social and recreational nature.

References

Astin, A. (1993). What matters in college? Four critical years revisited. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Carini, R., & Kuh, G. (2003). Tomorrow's teachers: Do they engage in the 'right things' during college? Phi Delta Kappa, 84(5), 391-398. Cicognani, E., Pirini, C., Keyes, C., Joshanloo, M., Rostami, R., & Nosratabadi, M. (2008). Social participation and social well being. Social Indicators Research, 89, 97-112. Elkins, D., Forrester, S., & Noel-Elkins, A. (2011). Students' perceived sense of campus community: The influence of out-of-class experiences. College Student Journal, 45 (1), 105-121. Kuh, G. (2001). Assessing what really matters to student learning: Inside the National Survey of Student Engagement. Change, 33 (3), 10-17. Kuh, G. (2008). High-impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. Washington: Association of American Colleges and Universities. Kuh, G. (2009). What students affairs professionals need to know about student engagement. Journal of College Student Development, 50 (6), 683-706. Kuh, G., Kinzie, J., Buckley, J., Bridges, B., & Hayek, J. (2006, November). What matters to student success: a review of the literature. Comissioned report for the national symposium on postsecondary student success: Spearheading a dialog on student success. Washington. Kuh, G., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J., Whitt, E., & Associates (2005). Student success in college: Creating conditions that matter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Kuh, G., Schuh, J., Whitt, E., Andreas, R., Lyons, J., Strange, C., Krehbiel, L., & MacKay, K. (1991). Involving colleges: Successful approaches to fostering student learning and development outside the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Pascarella, E., & Terenzini, P. (2005). How college affects students: a third decade of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Silva, S. (2012). Dinâmicas de envolvimento e de desenvolvimento dos estudantes do ensino superior. Dissertação de doutoramento apresentada à Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra.

Author Information

Sofia De Lurdes Rosas Da Silva (presenting / submitting)

College of Education, Polythecnical Institute of Coimbra

Psychology and Science Education

Carvoeiro

Joaquim Armando Gomes Ferreira

Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education, University of Coimbra

António Gomes Ferreira