The NSSE Challenge
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Toward Strengthening Agenda General Education: Beyond Curricular Change - 1. Context for focus on improving Educational Environments educational environments Designed for Learning 2. What we’ve learned from NSSE about ACA Summit, 2005 effective educational practice 3. Using data to evaluate and improve Jillian Kinzie educational environments Associate Director 4. Stimulating action around effective NSSE Institute and Indiana educational practice University Center for 5. Discussion Postsecondary Research What we know about student Some Assertions about learning… Undergraduate Education : Assertion 1: Too few students are getting the most out Educators must be concerned with the of their college education. design of the learning environments – Assertion 2: The total learning environment must be in and outside the classroom, socio- examined to improve undergraduate education. cultural aspects and physical settings Assertion 3: We value what we measure. – in which students interact with How do we get more students to take greater advantage of educational opportunities? peers, the content, educators and To what extent are you willing to increase your others, and the implementation of investment in student success initiatives? strategies that help guide the student Are you willing to consider the effectiveness of toward the intended outcomes current practice in teaching and learning? How do you know that what you’re doing enhances student learning and success? Promising Signs The NSSE Challenge “Learning that lasts” requires How might we more effective educational processes and effectively use data about outcomes -- how do we create environments that facilitate student quality in undergraduate learning?? education to: 9provide evidence of Institutions must take a deep, student learning comprehensive look at themselves to 9motivate and inspire assess the quality and effectiveness of the undergraduate program. effective educational practice Assessment and improvement 9strengthen the learning activities like NSSE can help! environment? 1 ACA schools and Teagle NSSE and ACA schools Foundation Alice Lloyd College | Berea College | Bryan Goal to strengthen general education College | Campbellsville University | Davis & Elkins by supporting colleges in the collection College | Emory & Henry College | Lee University and use of student outcomes | Lees-McRae College | Lincoln Memorial information provided by ACT CAAP University | Lindsey Wilson College | Mars Hill (writing, reading, math, science) College | Maryville College | Milligan College | Union College | University of Charleston | Institutions will study gains scores to University of the South | Virginia Intermont identify areas in general education College | Warren Wilson College | West Virginia curriculum to revise and enhance Wesleyan College | Wheeling Jesuit University ACA schools will collaborate to develop Consortium – Work college, Christian colleges new approaches to structuring content and pedagogy Integrating data points around Lessons from the Research on What general education Matters to Student Learning Comprehensive review of gen ed requires Examination of learning outcomes data and The greatest impact appears course taking patterns to pinpoint where work to stem from students’ total needs to be done in the curriculum level of campus engagement, Consideration of the total learning particularly when academic, environment to broadly assess quality of the interpersonal, and undergraduate program and identify educational practices that need attention or extracurricular involvements can help further efforts to strengthen general are mutually reinforcing… education HOW will understanding outcomes data Pascarella & Terenzini, How College Affects change things on campus??? Students, 2005, p. 647 Lessons from the Research on What Path Model for Assessing Change in Matters to Student Learning Student Learning (Pascarella) Structural/Organization al Characteristics of Interactions with agents What students do during college counts institutions e.g., of socialization e.g., more in terms of desired outcomes than •Enrollment •Faculty and Staff who they are or even where they go to •Faculty-student ratio •Peers •Selectivity college. •% Residential Learning and The voluminous research on college cognitive development student development shows that the time Student Institutional background/Pre- Environment and energy students devote to College traits educationally purposeful activities is the •Aptitude •Achievement Quality of single best predictor of their learning and student effort personal development. •Personality •Aspiration •Ethnicity 2 Good Practices in What Really Matters in College: Undergraduate Education (Chickering & Gamson, 1987; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005) Student Engagement 9 Student-faculty contact Because individual effort and involvement are the critical 9 Active learning determinants of impact, 9 Prompt feedback institutions should focus on the ways they can shape their 9 Time on task academic, interpersonal, and extracurricular offerings to 9 High expectations encourage student engagement. 9 Experiences with diversity Pascarella & Terenzini, How College Affects 9 Cooperation among students Students, 2005, p. 602 National Survey of Student Engagement The Student Engagement Triad (pronounced “nessie”) Community College ¾ What students do -- time and energy Survey of Student devoted to educationally purposeful Engagement activities (pronounced “sessie”) ¾ What institutions do -- using effective College student surveys that educational practices to induce assess the extent to which students to do the right things students engage in educational practices associated with high ¾ Educationally effective institutions levels of learning and channel student energy toward the development right activities NSSE Benchmarks of Effective Academic Challenge by Institutional Educational Practice Type 75 75 First-Year Students Seniors 70 70 Level of Active & 65 65 Academic Collaborative 60 60 Challenge Learning 55 55 Student 50 50 Faculty 45 45 Interaction 40 40 Benchmark Scores Enriching Supportive 35 35 Educational Campus 30 30 Environment 25 25 Experiences Doc Doc Bac Bac Nation Doc Doc Bac Bac MA MA Nation Ext Int LA Gen Ext Int LA Gen 3 Academic Challenge at Two Public Universities What have we learned so far? Grades, persistence, student satisfaction, and engagement go hand in hand Student engagement varies more within than between institutions. What have we learned so far? Outcome Measures - NSSE & NSSE & Graduation Rates Educational and Personal Gains (% “very much” or “quite a bit”) Self-Reported Educational and Personal Gains from First-year First-Year Students Seniors Seniors* College students* Thinking critically and analytically 81% 87% Acquiring a broad general education 82% 86% Academic Challenge .60 .46 Working effectively with others 66% 78% Writing clearly and effectively 72% 77% Active & Collaborative Learning .23 .09 Learning effectively on your own 70% 77% Student Faculty Interaction .28 .37 Using computing and information technology 65% 76% Acquiring job or work-related knowledge and skills 57% 72% Enriching Educational Experiences .53 .48 Speaking clearly and effectively 60% 72% Understanding yourself 60% 66% Analyzing quantitative problems 55% 65% Supportive Campus Environment .38 .26 Solving complex real-world problems 49% 58% Understanding people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds 50% 52% *All correlations are significant at p<.01 Voting in local, state, or national elections 24% 23% What have we learned so far? Diversity Experiences positively What have we learned so far? related to engagement First-year students Seniors Divers ity Divers ity Divers ity Divers ity Spirituality, Liberal learning & Student Density Climate In Course- Diversity Density Climate In Course- Diversity Engagement Dependent variable Index Diversity Work Press Index Diversity Work Press Student Engagement • More students report participating in spirituality Academic challenge +++enhancing activities Higher order thinking +++ +++ Active and Collaborative +++ +++ • No dampening effect found between participation Diversity-related activities ++++++++ and liberal learning experience and outcomes Supportive Campus Env. Supportive Campus Env. ++ • Students who report spiritual practices also Interpersonal -+ participate in broad cross section of collegiate Support for learning +++ +++ activities Satisfaction -+ + Gains-Interpers. Dev. • Students at faith-based colleges engage in spiritual Gains - Personal/social +++++++ practice more, but participate less in having Gains-Social Awareness conversations with peers with different beliefs, Gains-Understanding div. ++++++++ engage less in deep learning activities Gains -Cont. to community +++ +++ Gains-Understand self +++ +++ 4 What have we learned so far? FSSE-NSSE Gap Analysis Promising findings for First Year Students: ¾ About two-thirds (65%) of faculty expect students to 62% “often” or “very often” ask questions in spend more than 25 hours class preparing for class 58% “often” or “very often” discussed ideas with others outside of class (students, ¾ Only about one-fifth family members) (20%) think that students spend this amount of time - Is this adequate? ¾ Only about one in ten - How often do students report these (12%) students actually activities on your campus? spends this much time - What benchmarks for effective practice do you use? NSSE – FSSE comparison data Prompt Feedback Lower Upper Division Division