A growing body of research has shown the positive relationship between student engagement and cognitive skills development among Latinx undergraduates at more selective institutions. However, despite the large proportion of Latinx transfer students at four-year institutions, they are relatively ignored in higher education literature. Using data…

This case study analyzes engagement during situated learning students engaged in the Global Game Jam, a three-day game development event. The themes identified as indicators of engagement for thematic analysis during this research were from the National Center for Educational Statistics' (NCES) National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The…

Previous research suggests that creativity training is effective in academic settings, and that creative skills are increasingly important for success within unconventional careers such as self-employment or starting a business. This study extends research on creativity and entrepreneurial training in higher education, using data from the National…

Universities and colleges are consistently being held accountable for measurable outcomes from internal and external stakeholders. Outcomes such as the development of critical thinking skills have been tied to funding from state and federal governments and employers believe that graduates should be able to think critically and produce results…

This study aims to determine the benefits of student-centred teaching methods for students' cognitive and practical improvement and the mediating effect of deep learning on the relationship between them. We developed a scale of student-centred teaching for the Chinese context using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and…

The first-year seminar Why Are We Here? Student Culture and the Problem of College (WAWH) helps high-achieving students become motivated agents in their education by changing attitudes toward themselves, college, and their roles as students. The author presents the intentional design, execution, analysis, and results of the WAWH seminar, a…

This study extends research on the effectiveness of creativity training and the importance of student engagement in higher education. Using data from the "Senior Transitions" topical module of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), responses from over 25,000 seniors at 266 different U.S colleges and universities demonstrate…

Purpose: This paper aims to develop a model of measuring student engagement in a blended-massive open online course (MOOC) context. MOOCs are those that are delivered, usually by leading universities, with a promise to provide free high-quality education to an unlimited number of learners. They offer an opportunity for "blended" course…

The purpose of this study was to examine freshmen international student perceptions of engagement at a private, 4-year University in the northeast and the association of these perceptions with self-reported gains in practical skills and institution-reported GPA. Data of this non-experimental study were collected via NSSE survey. The NSSE data of…

This 5-year study of graduating seniors at Elon University (n = 2,058) evaluates the impacts of experiential learning depth (amount of time commitment) and breadth (number of different types of experiences) on student outcomes. Data on study abroad, undergraduate research, internships, service, and leadership experiences were pulled from…

This study estimates the effects of a deep approaches to learning scale and its subscales on measures of students' critical thinking, need for cognition, and positive attitudes toward literacy, controlling for pre-college scores for the outcomes and other covariates. Results suggest reflection is critical to making gains across the outcomes.

Discussions of the quality of learning in university education often focus on curricula. Less attention is paid to the role of student-staff interactions. In a context in which a host of factors place pressure on the opportunities for students and staff to interact, it is important to use empirical insights to inform decisions about how to…

In this study the authors analyze longitudinal student survey data from the 17-institution Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS) to determine the extent that the influence of overall exposure to clear and organized instruction on four-year growth in two measures of cognitive development is mediated by student use of deep approaches…

We use a longitudinal national dataset to explore the direct and conditional effects of fraternity/sorority membership on students' educational outcomes in the 4th year of college. Controlling for a variety of potentially confounding variables, including pretest measures of the outcomes, we find no direct effect of fraternity/sorority membership…

Critics of traditional, residential, liberal arts colleges and universities contend that this form of higher education is outmoded, too costly, and no longer educationally relevant for 21st century students. Economies of scale, large classes taught by contingent faculty members and graduate students, and increasing reliance on technology and…