Using data on upper-division students in the University of California system, we show that two distinct cultures of engagement exist on campus. The culture of engagement in the arts, humanities and social sciences focuses on interaction, participation, and interest in ideas. The culture of engagement in the natural sciences and engineering focuses on improvement of quantitative skills through collaborative study with an eye to rewards in the labor market. The two cultures of engagement are strongly associated with post-graduate degree plans. The findings raise questions about normative conceptions of good educational practices in so far as they are considered to be equally relevant to students in all higher education institutions and all major fields of study.Considerable scholarly and policy attention has been directed toward the improvement of undergraduate education for more than two decades (see, e.g., AAC 1985;Chickering and Gamson 1987). Yet interest appears to have peaked in recent years, as indicated 1 The SERU Project is a collaborative study based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley and focused on developing new types of data and innovative policy relevant scholarly analyses on the academic and civic experience of students at major research universities, One of the main products of the SERU Project has been the development and administration of the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES). For further information on the project, see http://cshe.berkeley.edu/research/seru/ Brint, Cantwell, and Hannerman: TWO CULTURES OF ENGAGEMENT 2 CSHE Research & Occasional Paper Series by large-scale improvement efforts at many of the country's leading research universities (see, e.g., Rimer 2007).The most important cause of this heightened interest is the report of the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education (also known as the Spellings Commission). The Spellings Commission proposed incentives for the adoption of standardized testing for purposes of making higher education accountable to consumers. In the words of the Commission, "We believe that improved accountability is vital to ensuring the success of all the…reforms we propose…" (Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education 2006: 4).The Commission's recommendations represent what may be the first major salvo in a federal government campaign to bring greater accountability to higher education as a condition of accreditation.The Spellings Commission recommendations build on significant public concerns about the undergraduate experience. Public opinion surveys have shown that concerns about educational quality are common among Americans; nearly half of Americans say that low educational standards are a serious problem in American colleges and universities and support efforts to hold colleges accountable for student learning (ETS 2003). Wellpublicized studies have provided evidence that the college experience is failing as a stimulus to the educational m...

Background/Context Previous research has established the significance of academic study time on undergraduate students’ academic performance. The effects of other uses of time are, however, in dispute. Some researchers have argued that students involved in activities that require initiative and effort also perform better in class, while students who engage in mainly passive entertainments perform less well. Other researchers have argued that students who are connected to the campus through residence, work, or extracurricular activities perform better, while those who are separated perform less well. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of this study is to develop a theory-based framework for examining the academic consequences of student time and to test hypotheses drawn from this framework using survey data. Research Design The framework focuses on three dimensions of student time use: study/non-study, active/passive, and connecting/separating. The survey analysis is based on more than 6000 responses to the 2006 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES). Findings/Results Controlling for students’ socio-demographic backgrounds, previous academic achievements, and social psychological stressors, we find that study time is strongly connected to both academic conscientiousness and higher grade point averages. We find that “activating” uses of time, such as physical exercise and volunteering, are associated with higher levels of academic conscientiousness, but not directly to higher grade point averages. Time spent on “passive” entertainments show negative associations on academic conscientiousness. Uses of time that connect students to campus life showed relatively weak and inconsistent effects, as did uses of time that separate students from campus life. Off-campus work was an exception. It showed a strong net association with lower grade point averages. Conclusions/Recommendations Our findings have implications for theory: They lead to a stronger focus on academic study time as the central key to positive academic outcomes, and a renewed focus on off-campus work as a major obstacle to positive academic outcomes. They suggest further that college and university administrators should find ways to “unplug” male students from their computer entertainments and to help minority students who need to work to find employment on campus.

Using data from the 2008 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey, we show that study time and academic conscientiousness were lower among students in humanities and social science majors than among students in science and engineering majors. Analytical and critical thinking experiences were no more evident among humanities and social sciences majors than among science and engineering majors. All three academically beneficial experiences were, however, strongly related to participation in class and interaction with instructors, and participation was more common among humanities and social sciences students than among science and engineering students. Bok's (Our underachieving colleges: A candid look at how much students learn and why they should be learning more. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2006) influential discussion of ''underachievement' in undergraduate education focused on institutional performance. Our findings indicate that future discussions should take into account differences among disciplinary categories and majors as well.

We theorize 5 dimensions of academic disengagement based on students’ values, motivations, study behaviors, academic interactions, and competing involvements. Using 2010 survey data from the University of California, we find support for this conceptualization. The size of disengaged populations varied between 5% and 25%, depending on the measure used. On most measures, male students, upper-division students, students with low college GPAs, and students in the humanities and social sciences were significantly more likely, net of covariates, to be among academically disengaged populations. Students with high SAT scores were also more likely to be among academically disengaged populations.

Previous research has examined individuals' relative preference for consistent and enhancing feedback by examining reactions to negative and positive feedback. Recent research shows that, in general, individuals prefer feedback that is consistent with self-views, even if feedback is negative. It is unclear, however, whether negative and positive feedback equally affect actual changes in individuals' self-views. Using insights from Identity Control Theory (Burke 1991(Burke , 1996 and a sample of newly married couples, we examine whether positive and negative feedback are equally influential in affecting change in individuals' self-views. We also examine possible change in spouses' views. Results show that when there is a discrepancy between individuals' self-views and their spouses' views, both change in ways to become more consistent with the views of the other. Moreover, individuals and spouses are as likely to adopt negative views as they are to adopt positive views, supporting self-consistency theories.