From “Loving It” to “Freaking Out” and Back Again: The Engagement of a Mature-Aged Distance Student in their First Semester at University.
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Date
2012
DOI
Open Access Location
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
School of Psychology, Massey University
Rights
Abstract
Student engagement is a student’s emotional,
behavioural, and cognitive connection to their
studies. Evidence suggests engagement is vital
to both success and satisfaction at university. A
conceptual framework of student engagement,
developed from research in psychology, sociology,
and education, argues that engagement does
not occur in isolation; rather it is embedded
within a complex network of antecedents and
consequences. This paper presents a case study
of a 47 year old solo mother’s first semester
at university. An interpretive analysis uses the
framework to illuminate how student engagement
changes throughout the semester and how the
various university and student factors influence
that process. Interviews at each end of the semester
plus fortnightly video diaries were used to collect
rich detailed data about the student’s experiences.
The embedded nature of student engagement is
apparent, with emotion as a key mechanism by
which student and university factors influence
engagement. In particular, the student’s interest
in the topic triggers a high level of engagement
resulting in deep integrated learning. At other
times, difficulties with university processes and
poor support from staff trigger negative emotions
that reduce engagement.
Description
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Keywords
Student engagement, Mature students, Distance learning