This dissertation discusses a current niche in sociological literature: technology and interaction rituals in elementary schools. In particular, it examines the relationship between classroom interactions and the increasing available new forms of technologies (i.e. iPads, robotics kits, Smart boards) that are finding their way into schools. In doing so, I consider what new interactions and digital tools might mean for student engagement in what has now become known as the “21st century classroom”. Two pivotal sociological theories are utilized in this project: 1) Collins (2004) interaction ritual (IR) theory and 2) Bourdieu’s (1974; 1986) concept of cultural capital. Both are valuable in understanding how the introduction of digital tools in mainstream schools can influence or change interactions between and among students and teachers in classrooms, how they may impact student engagement gaps. Traditionally speaking, schools have long valued and rewarded certain types of interactions—student obedience alongside teacher authority, an orderly and compliant classroom, emphasis on more traditional teaching and so forth. Student engagement was not necessarily a point of interest, as was having a systematic classroom. However, perhaps technology is beginning to change those valuations, and create new types of classroom interactions that are unique to the 21st century—classrooms that have a more student-centered pedagogy, whereby teachers work in tandem with students to engross them in the learning process, and where student engagement is more much valued. If this is true, this may be a sign of some new emerging types of IRs that are beginning to surface in the presence of technology. Collins' (2004) theory of IR focuses on the emotional input and feedback of individuals that transpire in interactions among actors, which in the case of classrooms, consist of teachers and students. The theory holds that interactions produce or deplete “emotional energy” of participants depending on many key factors (physical co-presence, exclusivity of group, mutual focus/mood, bodily synchronization). A successful ritual is one in which participants have a mutual focus on a particular “symbol” or “emblem” unique to that group. Through this research, I propose that technology can serve as that “emblem” to group membership, and as a result, can facilitate new kinds of IR. “Cultural capital”, in comparison, is usually considered to be a collection of symbolic elements such as skills, tastes, clothing, materials, credentials and so on that one acquires by being a member of a particular social class. In education, cultural capital can refer to having valued sets of skills and knowledge that are aligned with school rewards. Traditionally, this usually meant a middle-upper class advantage in schooling, as students of more affluent families were able to learn valued kinds of skill sets to help them achieve better in school. However, with the advent of new technologies, I question whether notions of cultural capital have changed as a result, and whether possessing a digital skillset is in and of itself, a new type of valued capital. Can new technologies produce more equalizing experiences for students of varying SES backgrounds? To explore the possibility of digital tools in classrooms creating new sets of rituals with new kinds of valued cultural capital, this study adopts a qualitative methodology, consisting of elementary classroom observations, interviews, and focus groups with teachers and students in ten school boards across Ontario, Canada. My research discusses three integrated themes. I begin by asking first, how have technologies transformed the ways in which students and teachers interact with, and amongst each other? By providing a new medium for both teacher pedagogy and student learning, this has major implications for classroom engagement. Secondly, I explore the possibility that one unintended consequence of using digital resources (compared to more traditional print media), has been a reduction in home-based inequalities, and a more “even playing field” for students of varying SES. With the ease, accessibility, and affordability of technology today, students in vary capacities are exposed to new valued skillsets. Lastly, I consider how technology can be a type of “leveler” for different kinds of students, which can allow them to participate and facilitate new types of ritual inclusions. I focus both on gendered interactions and exchanges between students with special needs as examples. The exploration of these three themes guides my research on the use of educational technologies across classrooms. These have important implications for sociologists, educational researchers, and policy-makers alike. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study was designed to accomplish three main objectives. The first objective was to test the hypothesis that school engagement is a multidimensional construct with three factors: behavioral, emotional, and cognitive or academic engagement. The second objective was to test for invariance of the measurement and factorial structures of school engagement across white and African-American students. And the third objective of the study was to test for invariance of the latent mean structures of school engagement across white and African-American students. In order to accomplish the objectives of the study a step by step approached, using structural equation modeling, was followed. First, the best fitting model of school engagement for both white and African American students were identified. Second, invariance of the number of underlying factors of school engagement across white and African-American students was tested. Third, invariance of factor loadings across the two racial/ethnic groups was tested. Fourth, invariance of the factor variances and covariances was tested. Fifth, latent mean structures of school engagement between white and African-American were compared. Finally, the results of the calibrating sample were cross-validated with the second half of the sample. Results from this study produced consistent support for a three-factor model of school engagement and without cross-loadings to other dimensions of school engagement. However, some parameters including factor loadings, factor variances and latent means were found non-invariant across white and African American students. African American students rated themselves statistically significantly higher on emotional engagement than white students. In addition, weaknesses in the measurement model especially the reliability coefficients of observed indicators and variance accounted for by the latent factors were identified. Cognitive engagement proved to be the most difficult to measure among all three dimensions of school engagement. Finally, analysis of the cross-validating sample produced some important differences which included one additional non-invariant factor loading, one factor covariance, and one additional latent mean difference between white and African American students. / Ph. D.

A review of research concludes that a high proportion of high school students are disengaged from their learning and that the adolescent peer culture demeans academic success. Parents are just as disengaged from school as their children. The overall guiding question for this study was: How do high school students vary their engagement with school when influenced by the interaction of family involvement practices and peer relationships? Subordinate questions were: (a) Do high school family involvement programs influence individual student engagement? (b) What is the ability of high school instructional and noninstructional programs to positively influence student engagement practices? and, (c) What effects do parental influences have over the relationship between individual students and their peers. The research methodology used in this study was a case study analysis of 20 high school students at a large, comprehensive high school. An analysis of in-depth interviews and a review of available documents were the preliminary methods of investigation. Results indicate that the varied engagement practices of high school students are not directly affected by overlapping influences of peers, family, and school, but that these overlapping influences are a catalyst for five forces for engagement that emerge from these intricate relationships. / Ed. D.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychology / Clive J. A. Fullagar / Student engagement has become an important way of assessing student outcomes for college and is used to provide information to accreditation agencies, for internal accountability as well as to assess impact of college on students. However, current measures of student engagement do not assess the core process underlying student engagement, instead focusing on antecedents and consequences of engagement. The current research addressed this gap by first developing a new measure of student engagement called SAENS (Student Academic ENgagement Scale), which is strongly grounded in theory derived from the work engagement literature. Two dimensions of engagement were found: enjoyment and effort. A second study validated this measure by forming a nomological net of relationships with other variables and testing these antecedents and consequences of engagement. Results indicated that engagement effort is strongly related to student grades for their classes and the dimension of enjoyment is related to the teaching style of collaborative learning. However, engagement was not related to students’ levels of critical thinking.

This study considers how advising ePortfolios are uniquely situated to address a current challenge in the application of educational technologies: using the right tool for the right job for the right reason at the right time. The particular problem identified for investigation lies at the intersection of two central issues: first, in the age of accountability in higher education, academic advisors lack both a tool and a metric for assessing advising; second, the current ePortfolio field struggles to prove methodological validity with regard to design, development, delivery, and evaluation. These ePortfolios were systematically studied using an approach that provided a workable method for conceptualizing the advising ePortfolio, its design, and its development to improve faculty-student engagement with first-generation students. The sample was composed of 10 first-generation first-year students at the University of Notre Dame. The overall methodology followed design and development research for product/tool use and evaluation. Data were gathered using surveys, interviews, and observations. This study answered the following questions: What procedures were undertaken to facilitate the design and development of a validated advising ePortfolio tool? In what ways is the advising ePortfolio prototype practical in meeting the requirements specified for the target group--first-year first-generation students? To what extent is the advising ePortfolio effective in impacting student engagement, particularly with first-year first-generation students? Key findings indicate that the advising ePortfolio was easy to learn, easy to use, and highly enjoyable. In addition, participants reported that the advising ePortfolio improved the effectiveness of the advising process and, as a result, had a clear impact on increasing student engagement. Beyond the overall positive impact on student engagement, two significant outcomes and contributions emerged: first, the development of the blended advising model, which uses the ePortfolio to deepen the engagement cycle; second, enhanced assessment, learning analytics, and data triangulation models which qualitatively and quantitatively data mines the ePortfolio to create next generation learning analytics that could measure student engagement.

This qualitative study explored how teachers used graphic novels to encourage student engagement in learning. A case study approach was used to achieve my two research objectives: 1) to examine current research about graphic novels and pedagogical understandings relevant to the study of graphic novels as a pedagogical resource, and 2) to identify the pedagogical understandings of four secondary language arts teachers using graphic novels to encourage student engagement in learning. Action research framed the approach used to examine the collaborative practices of four teacher participants and myself as we learned about graphic novels. Interviews, focus groups, observations, and artifact analysis all contributed to highlighting the pedagogical understandings of the participants. The findings confirmed previous scholarship that graphic novels can be a beneficial pedagogical tool in ELA classrooms, further encouraging student engagement in learning and valuing students out of school interests. The findings also confirmed that teachers go through a unique, collaborative, and at times, individualized process of learning before teaching a new resource, but when preparing and sharing graphic novels with students preferred to frame the learning using before, during, and after comprehension strategies and activities to present their units. The findings also affirmed that resource selection and evaluation was highly influenced by the teachers prior-interests and understanding of curriculum. The study also produced some interesting findings that suggested the need for pre-service and in-service professional development opportunities around graphic novels so that teachers can be prepared to support and growing multimodal and multiliterate population. Furthermore, and unexpectedly, the participants each developed a passion for graphic novels where they previously had none and all continue to use graphic novels in their classrooms and read them for pleasure.

Master of Science / Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering / Bruce Babin / To keep students engaged in the learning process, educational engineering institutions need to enhance their curricula. Courses within an undergraduate curriculum need to be connected in a way that is meaningful and promotes student engagement through hands-on learning. Courses are currently designed like silos of knowledge with no connection between them, yet, there needs to be a realistic and practical tie between them. Prior research that addresses course integration, hands-on learning and student engagement has guided the development of this thesis. Building on prior research, a Fundamental Learning Integration Platform (FLIP) has been developed that uses a physical object to integrate traditionally mechanical engineering taught courses with the use of a single ubiquitous object. This learning platform has three desired outcomes: 1) it connects the entire curriculum, 2) it creates a physical connection between theoretical and practical engineering concepts, and 3) it engages and includes every student in the learning process. After identifying research to guide the development of the FLIP as well as identifying courses in a mechanical engineering curriculum, a desktop steam engine was developed and is shown that it is applicable to each course. This physical object acts as the FLIP. Ultimately, it will create a physical connection between theoretical and practical engineering concepts while integrating courses together and actively engaging each student in the learning process. Utilizing the same assessment methods used in the identified research, higher retention rates, increased passing rates of the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, and increased student inclusion in the classroom are all desired measurables of the FLIP. The results of this research have provided a well-developed FLIP that utilizes a physical object to increase student engagement while integrating traditional mechanical engineering courses together.

Thesis advisor: Karen Arnold / Student engagement has been associated with a range of desirable outcomes in the undergraduate experience (Astin, 1993, Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005) and music participation has been shown to facilitate important personal and social development among its participants (Hallam, 2010). Despite this, no study has been conducted to evaluate the potential benefits of participation in one of the largest and most visible student organizations on campus: the college marching band. The purpose of this quantitative evaluation was to determine whether marching band students express distinctive patterns of engagement within their respective communities as compared with their non-band peers. Items and scales from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) were administered to marching band members (n=1,882) at 20 participating universities with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division-I football programs. Data were compared with a sample of general undergraduate (non-band) responses (n=6,095) from the same institutions provided by the NSSE Institute. Findings suggested that band students are more engaged with diverse peers along racial, ethnic, political, ideological, and religious lines (p<.01; Cohen’s d=0.26) and they are more reflective in their learning as evident in their willingness to imagine another’s perspective and reevaluate their own views (p<.01; Cohen’s d=0.19). Compared with non-band peers, marching band members indicated greater personal social responsibility on an array of vectors (p<.01; Cohen’s d=0.36) including: developing a personal code of values and ethics, understanding people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds, understanding themselves, learning effectively on their own, voting in local or national elections, contributing to the welfare of their community, and solving complex real-world problems. After controlling for a range of pre-college and co-existing variables, marching band membership remained the strongest predictor of these desirable outcomes (β=0.172, p<.01). / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Robert J. Starrratt / Academic cheating undermines teachers' ability to assess student learning and disadvantages honest students. Today's students increasingly express both an acceptance of cheating and a conviction that cheating is the only way to succeed. Academic dishonesty reflects a larger educational problem in which students fail to value school work. Research on cheating suggests that cheating is more prevalent in older grades but neither the cheating behaviors of middle school students nor the development of cheating habits is well understood. Using goal orientation and neutralization theories, this study examined the conditions under which typical eighth graders perceive cheating as acceptable though not right. A cross-case study method compared student views with those of their teachers. Data included focus groups, interviews, classroom observations, and artifacts. Findings indicate that characteristics of assignments, student-teacher relationships, classroom orientation, and student accountability are central to reducing cheating. Results suggest implications for teaching practice and administration in fostering academic honesty. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: David L. Blustein / This study explored the relationship between community college students' working lives and student engagement. Student engagement has been used as a proxy for student persistence based on its strong association with student persistence and its powerful negative association with school drop-out. Work has been studied extensively as related to student engagement. The existing literature on student engagement and work is contradictory and focuses almost exclusively on adolescent students (i.e., Greenberger & Steinberg, 1986; Mortimer et al., 2002) or four-year college students (i.e., Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; 2005), leaving a notable gap in the community college student literature. Most community college students work full time while attending school, yet little is known about how students' work lives relate to their student engagement. Utilizing Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Framework (1979), which emphasizes the potential for positive and reciprocal relationships between contexts such as work and school, the present study sought to redress the gap in the literature through exploring how Work Intensity, Gender and Work Quality relate to Student Engagement. Students filled out the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and a Work Quality survey. Using a sample of (277) students, the results of the data analyses revealed the following findings: (1) students who worked more intense hours did not differ significantly in their student engagement than their peers who worked less intense hours; (2) students who worked in intrinsically rewarding jobs were more engaged in school; (3) contrary to predicted, students who worked in higher stress jobs were more engaged in school and (4) work intensity moderated the relationship between extrinsic rewards at work and student effort. These findings add to the literature on community college student engagement as they are somewhat surprising and differ from what we know about student engagement among adolescent and traditional four-year college populations. Namely, community college students may demonstrate a unique ability to balance their school and work lives despite long hours and at times stressful working conditions. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology.