This research study explores the ways in which articulations of belonging are expressed by a small number of second year education undergraduates in a post-1992 university in the UK. Issues of student engagement and belonging in Higher Education (HE) have been the subject of research within recent years as a way to enhance rates of student retention and success, as the Widening Participation agenda has realised a changing demographic within the traditional student body. This study focuses on the First Generation Student (FGS), as reflective of the non-traditional student, who is subject to a negative framing within the educational literary discourse. The research adopts a metaphorical lens to locate the FGS as migrant within the HE landscape and to consider HE institutional efforts to foster a sense of belonging, as a strategic tool for success, as a colonising process. Working within an ecological framing of the topic, the study focuses on the differing contexts within which the research participants operate and considers the impact these have upon student engagement with the university. As a way to foreground respectful working with research participants, a person-centred approach has been employed, using a narrative inquiry methodological framework. Voices of the participants, as narrators, are privileged within this study in order to afford them the opportunity to add to the ongoing conversation on belonging. Creative strategies, based upon photo- and metaphor-elicitation, have been employed to facilitate discussion of the abstract and intangible concept of belonging and to provide a participatory nature to this research study. Findings signal a strong resolve by these narrators to overcome obstacles in their path to success within what is often an unfamiliar terrain within HE. The potentiality of the individual is privileged, showing strengths that are brought to the world of study which are often unrecognised by university practices. The affective dimension of belonging is emphasised within the research and metaphors of belonging, articulated by the narrators, offer alternative conceptual structurings which privilege aspects to do with security and adventure. Such insights afford opportunities to view belonging from differing perspectives, to re-figure ways in which students see themselves within HE processes, and to alert staff and personnel to new ways in which they might view the non-traditional student. Aspects of valuing the diversity of students and of a person-centred approach to working are viewed as key to creating the possibilities for belonging.

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Higher education professionals are always seeking new and better ways to prepare students for life after college—a goal that requires not only providing knowledge and experience in their chosen field, but also helping them stay engaged in the process. Recently, computer based simulations have magnified role playing and case study techniques that have been used in classrooms for many years. These simulations have found great success in many settings, including engineering, business, and medicine, but there have been very few computer simulations designed for writing classes. Given that some of the greatest challenges in such classes are teaching students to respond to a context, write to an audience, and stay engaged in the process, simulations have great potential to improve pedagogy in writing classes by providing a more authentic and engaging context. In this pilot study of a computer simulation designed for technical writing classes, we examined how the simulation affected these factors (authenticity and engagement). We combined qualitative and quantitative methods, doing surveys in three classes (the class using the simulation and two classes with other pedagogies) and focus groups with the simulation class. While the results of the survey were rather inconclusive, the surveys and focus groups combined taught us two main lessons: (1) the simulation needs to be believable to be effective—making it too much like a game can backfire with some students, and (2) students remain more interested when the simulation is complex and leaves them some autonomy concerning what happens. While not necessarily groundbreaking, knowing what worked and what didn’t in our simulation can provide valuable insights for future simulation designers.

This is a multiple-article format dissertation that explores methods for measuring student engagement in technology-mediated learning experiences. Student engagement is the committed, focused, and energetic involvement of students in learning. Student engagement is correlated with academic performance, student satisfaction, and persistence in learning, making it a valuable predictor of important learning outcomes. In order to identify which students need help or to evaluate how well an instructional interaction promotes student engagement, we need effective measures of student engagement. These measures should be scalable, cost effective, and minimally disruptive to learning. This dissertation examines different approaches to measure student engagement in technology-mediated learning environments that meet the identified measurement criteria. The first article is an extended literature review that examines how engagement has been measured in technology-mediated learning experiences. The second article is an instrument evaluation of an activity-level self-report measure of student engagement. The third article explores the relationships between learning management system user-activity data (log data) and results of the activity-level self-report measure of student engagement.

This this three-article dissertation sought to explore the potential causal link of students’ collegiate residence with three broad categories of student outcomes. Using data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, each article employed propensity score matching in an effort to reduce selection bias associated with a student’s decision to live on campus. The first manuscript examined academic achievement, retention, four-year graduation, and satisfaction with the college experience and found that living on campus had no direct effect on any of these outcomes. The second manuscript explored the effect of living on campus on students’ overall health, alcohol consumption and binge drinking, smoking behaviors, exercise frequency, and psychological well-being. Findings suggest that living on campus has a positive effect on students’ first-year alcohol consumption, frequency of binge drinking, and exercising behaviors. These findings do not persist beyond the first year. Some conditional effects were uncovered, with a significant interaction between race and campus residence on some outcomes. The final study considered the effect living on campus has on student engagement. Living on campus was found to have a direct effect on positive peer interactions, frequency of interactions with student affairs staff, and co-curricular involvement. Like the second study, conditional analyses were conducted and revealed significant interactions mostly among race and campus residence.

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This study seeks to explore the impact that admissions viewbooks have on students’ expectancies of an institution as well as their academic and social engagement. Because few studies exist on admissions viewbooks, the literature review seeks to establish a base for the importance of viewbooks in students’ college choice and their development of expectancies of their chosen institution, as well as the subsequent impacts of violated expectations on engagement and retention. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this study examines (1) the promises made by institutions in their viewbooks as found via textual analysis and (2) the impact of violated expectancies on academic and social engagement. Specifically, this study seeks information about the expectancies students have developed of the University of Kentucky, the degree to which those expectancies have been violated, and the impact of those violations on students’ academic and social engagement on UK’s campus. Findings suggest that UK is positively violating students’ expectancies, which in turn impacts engagement as related to several themes (i.e., faculty-to-student ratio, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities). Implications for instructors, the University of Kentucky, and marketing professionals are included, such as UK should continue its dedication toward developing an excellent and engaging first-year experience.

This observational study surveyed the engagement of fifth-grade gifted students who spend the majority of their academic day in a general education classroom. This study looked at students in a K-6 public school district in Southern California. This study was a qualitative study with some quantitative data to confirm observational findings. The methods included observations, observational notes, audio and video recordings. After the observations the recordings were reviewed to assure the observational notes accurately portrayed the actions of the target students. The measures included student surveys, observational data via the Behavioral Observation of Students in Schools instrument, and teacher interviews. The short response portion of the student surveys and the teacher interviews were coded and analyzed for common themes. The research questions that dictated the direction of this study included: Is student engagement altered by use of differentiated curriculum, if so is it increased or decreased with more appropriate assignments for gifted students? Do students put forth the same effort with more complex assignments as with easier assignments? Do fifth-grade gifted students show signs of a lack of student engagement? Further research may include expanding the study to include more students from various school districts to ascertain if the findings are consistent with other groups of students.

As college classrooms increase in size, the challenge of keeping students engaged in the course becomes a greater challenge. Instructors are burdened with the task of managing larger classrooms while maintaining high levels of student participation. Research has shown that students tend to hide and are less likely to participate in larger classrooms. Research has also shown that student participation is affected by fear of judgment from their peers and the instructor. However it is unclear whether this fear is tied to students’ perceived ability or self-efficacy. In addition, it may be that students’ perception of the instructor may affect their class participation. The present study attempted to disentangle how these factors work together to influence student engagement in the classroom. The present study was conducted over the fall 2013 semester. Two hundred forty four students were recruited from three introductory psychology courses. At the beginning of the semester, students were asked to report their perception of their academic ability (academic self-efficacy; ASE) and demographic information. During the last week of instruction, students were asked to self-report their ASE, level of course engagement, and perceptions of the instructors teaching self-efficacy (PIE). After grades were posted, the final grades for each student were collected. Three predictions were explored: (a) changes in ASE would predict students’ course grade, (b) the relationship between student ASE and student grades would be mediated or moderated by student engagement, and (c) PIE would moderate the relationship between students’ ASE and student engagement. Two of the predictions were supported. Changes in ASE did predict students’ course grades such that increases in ASE predicted increases in grades as well. Student engagement partially explained the relationship between ASE and grades. Closer examination showed that performance (wanting good grades in the course) accounted for the relationship between ASE and course grades. The final prediction could not be evaluated because PIE was not related to ASE. However results show that PIE does significantly impact student engagement in the course. This adds to previous literature and shows that perceptions of an instructor’s teaching self-efficacy can influence how students engage in the course. These results also align with previous research that has shown that students with higher sense of ASE and course engagement have better academic outcomes.

Over the last few decades, a growing body of research has linked extracurricular activity participation with positive outcomes among high school students. Extracurricular activities often provide a rich environmental context for positive youth development, given that they provide opportunities for identity formation, the creation of interpersonal connections, and the development of social, emotional, academic, and/or career-related skills. However, there are no studies to date examining the relationship between extracurricular activity involvement and student outcomes among students enrolled in rigorous high school curricula (e.g., Advanced Placement [AP] and International Baccalaureate [IB]). The purpose of the current study was to extend the current understanding of the relationship between extracurricular activity involvement and academic and mental health outcomes for youth enrolled in AP and IB programs by investigating the levels of extracurricular activity participation among AP/IB students, and examining whether participation predicted student success in terms of academic and mental health outcomes. Given the increased academic demands faced by this group of students, this study aimed to also investigate the overscheduling hypothesis to see whether there was a curvilinear relationship between extracurricular activity involvement and student success (i.e., a point of diminishing return). In addition, this study examined whether the program type (i.e., AP or IB) moderated the relationship between extracurricular activity participation and student outcomes. Using data obtained from a larger research project led by Dr. Shannon Suldo and Dr. Elizabeth Shaunessy-Dedrick (Institute of Education Science: R305A100911), results indicated that on average, AP and IB students (N= 2,379) reported being involved in 3-4 different extracurricular activity types and spent approximately 5-9 hours per week involved in extracurricular activities. Findings also revealed that compared to AP students, IB students participated in a greater number of types of activities (3.38 vs. 3.89) and more hours of activities per week (3.03 vs. 3.18, where “3” corresponds to 5-9 hours per week). Although a significant difference in the overall levels of involvement in extracurricular activities was observed between AP and IB students, these differences did not translate into differences in associations between extracurricular involvement and student outcomes. Finally, this study found significant linear associations between the breadth of extracurricular activity participation and higher levels of life satisfaction, lower levels of psychopathology, higher GPAs, and higher AP/IB exam scores. Significant linear relationships between the intensity of extracurricular activity participation and lower levels of psychopathology and higher GPAs were also observed. Regarding the overscheduling hypothesis, results from the current study found curvilinear relationships between breadth of participation and AP/IB exam scores and GPA, with optimal levels of breadth of 4.1 and 5.2 types of extracurricular activities, respectively. Moreover, curvilinear relationships were also observed between intensity of participation and students’ psychopathology and GPA, with optimal intensity scores of 3.2 and 3.3 (i.e., between the “5-9” and “10-19” hours per week response option categories), indicating that participation in 20 or more hours of activities per week was associated with diminishing outcomes. Implications of findings for school psychologists and educational stakeholders, as well as future directions for research are discussed.