Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

An Investigation of Student Cognitive Engagement in the STEM Classroom—A Compilation of Faculty and Student Perspectives

Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/gf06g8717

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • Student engagement has been the focus of much engineering education research, in large part due to its ties to student learning. Widely considered to be a meta-construct, student engagement is often broken down into behavioral, emotional, and cognitive components. Reasons for ongoing research on student cognitive engagement are twofold: educators often have difficulty assessing students’ cognitive engagement due to its inherently unobservable qualities, and cognitive engagement has been seen as a predictor of deep learning and success in students. In the body of works that make up this dissertation, I researched student cognitive engagement from multiple vantage points. First, I worked to develop an instrument to measure student cognitive engagement. The outcome was the Student Course Cognitive Engagement Instrument (SCCEI), which showed evidence of validly measuring five distinct modes of cognitive engagement. The SCCEI aimed to allow instructors to evaluate the sophistication of the student cognitive engagement in their class. To support this aim, I analyzed student interviews to deepen my understanding of how students interpret items probing cognitive engagement. This allowed the SCCEI to be modified to more accurately represent the realities of students’ engagement experience. Included was the measurement of engagement inside and outside the classroom; evidence was found that students report statistically different on their modes of engagement depending on the context (inside or outside the classroom). I also interviewed students to gain a more holistic understanding of their engagement. These high-achieving, upper division engineering students provided insight on the major factors that shaped their engagement throughout college. Finally, I utilized our instrument, the SCCEI, in tandem with an instrument to measure instructional practices to explore the relationship between the two constructs. The results of these works broadly suggest that student cognitive engagement can indeed be measured by self-report, and instructors play a critical role in shaping their students’ engagement. Furthermore, findings suggest that instructional practices are indeed correlated with modes of student cognitive engagement. Compiled, this body of work adds to the growing literature on student cognitive engagement, and how the engineering discipline can continue to move towards the betterment of students.
License
Resource Type
Date Issued
Degree Level
Degree Name
Degree Field
Degree Grantor
Commencement Year
Advisor
Academic Affiliation
Rights Statement
Publisher
Peer Reviewed
Language

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

In Collection:

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details BarlowAllysonJ2019.pdf 2019-09-23 Public Download