Introductory sociology courses encourage students to shift from understanding social relations and inequalities through an individualistic lens toward a more sociological one. It is difficult for students to know how far they have advanced toward a sociological perspective if they do not have a good sense of where they began. This paper describes…

The Student Engagement in Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (SERSCA) Program at California State University, Stanislaus provides support for student engagement in these areas from idea conception through dissemination. Through assistantships, mini-grants, the Student Research Competition, and travel grants, the Program is designed to…

Efforts to evaluate and improve student engagement have been pervasive in higher education over recent years. Critics argue, however, that troubling affinities are evident between student engagement efforts and a neoliberal agenda which emphasises accountability through performativity. Neoliberalism manifests in policies that focus on the economic…

Adopting qualitative approaches, this study highlights the value of integrating cognitive understanding with students' daily experiences through a time diary (TD) project. Using an innovative three-phase design, the TD effectively heightened self-awareness, promoted self-reflection, inspired the desire to change, and facilitated knowledge…

Professors use various strategies to improve learning. To explore what professors perceived as critical aspects of engaging instruction, we conducted a qualitative case study with seven professors in the United States. Data was collected through individual face-to-face interviews. The conversations were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. The…

Following initial educational enthusiasms for 'Making' technologies and the 'Maker Movement', increasing numbers of students are now using digital fabrication programs and equipment in school. Given the current lack of empirical research exploring the realities of Making as a school activity, this paper presents an in-depth auto/ethnographic…

This article offers a rationale for using a low-intensity support, increasing opportunities to respond, to promote students' academic engagement and decrease disruptive behaviors. A step-by-step guide to implementing this strategy in the classroom setting is presented.

Appropriate instruments are required to determine student engagement on an undergraduate course, and in this study we evaluated a 23 item Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ) administered to undergraduate students studying a Bachelor of Sport and Recreation degree. These students were in the first semester of a 3 year degree, and were…

For many educators, personalization and standardization are considered antithetical, with personalization implying learning that is unique to each student and standardization implying something common to all. We must get past this dichotomy, France argues. Comparing methods in education to those in social media, he says that by standardizing…

The involvement of animals is almost commonplace in many schools, although actual data documenting the extent and nature of human-animal interaction (HAI) in these settings are sparse. We provide an overview of the existing research and argue that the inclusion of animals in classroom settings can have an indirect effect on learning by directly…

Community colleges increasingly implement various student success programs, including 1st-year seminars, college skills courses, learning communities, and orientation, in an effort to boost degree completion. However, it is unclear how success programs' curricular designs may contribute to these and associated student outcomes. Such inquiry is…

Research shows that when children feel engaged with learning, they are more likely to flourish socially and academically and less likely to exhibit problem behaviors. Researchers have distinguished three different types of engagement: behavioral, emotional, and cognitive. Behavioral engagement focuses on participation in academic, social, and…

Can integrating curriculum have a positive effect on a student's overall engagement and productivity in the classroom? This research study sought to prove that theory. Specifically, the question asked for this study was if integrating math with social studies curriculum would increase student engagement and productivity? Math and social studies…

For adult learners in online courses, writing is the predominant means by which all interaction takes place. As those participating in online education rely heavily on engagement with content, peers, and instructors, special attention should be given to include various activities that promote written communication to foster a positive and engaging…

The results of over twenty-five years of research seem clear: the addition of seductive visual details in video games hinders performance of learners (Garner, Gillingham, & White, 1989; Thalheimer, 2004; Rey, 2012). Yet, countless other research results propose the opposite: that visual embellishments and well-designed ambiguity instead…