The Two Cultures of Undergraduate Academic Engagement

Abstract

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...

Applying Graduate Student Perceptions of Task Engagement to Enhance Learning Conditions

“…If students can see the value of the work, they will put forth the effort in completing the learning task (applied expectancy theory). Results of the repeated measures are aligned with the literature indicating that students who report being engaged with a learning task are likely to perform better on that task (Brint, Cantwell & Hannerman, 2008;Carini, Kuh & Klein, 2006;Ewell, 2002), emphasizing the importance of assigning engaging work.…”

“…The educational literature indicates that student engagement is generally recognized as one of the better predictors of learning (Brint, Cantwell & Hannerman, 2008;Carini, Kuh & Klein, 2006;Ewell, 2002). Thus, creating classroom conditions that enhance student engagement will lead to increased student learning, which is a primary goal for both students and teachers.…”

“…Although much has been published on undergraduate measures of student engagement (Brint, Cantwell & Hannerman, 2008;Zhao & Kuh, 2004;Ewell, 2002), little has been published on graduate student measures of engagement, especially as related to learning tasks assigned for a particular course. In the United States, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is notably the most common survey cited for measuring and evaluating undergraduate student engagement factors.…”

Engagement of students with lectures in biochemistry and pharmacology

“…Large scale studies, which gather data from a range of higher education institutions, are performed annually in both the USA [The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)] and Australia [Australian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE)]. However, as noticeable variation between disciplines, countries and universities has been reported [7,8], it is difficult to make generalizations; hence, there is a need to study specific aspects of engagement and individual cohorts of students.…”

Assessment in Medical Education; What Are We Trying to Achieve?

“…This ideology has been reflected in postgraduate Medical training whereby many training bodies have introduced Mini Case Based Discussion (Mini-Cx) and Directly Observed Practical Skill (DOPS) to their routine evaluations, in a bid to reflect the complexity of real life medical scenarios. This practice represents a welcomed shift from the traditional approach to assessment and learning to the ideals of critical thinking and autonomy in medical education (Brint S, Cantwell AM and Hanneman RA, 2008). …”