Student Understanding, Participation and Engagement: A Small Scale Quantitative Study

Gossman, Peter, Gorden, Caroline, Williams, Emyr and Evans, Sarah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9877-157X (2015) Student Understanding, Participation and Engagement: A Small Scale Quantitative Study. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 3 (2). pp. 38-49. ISSN 2051-9788

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Abstract

Within the current Higher Education focus on the student experience, this study explores the possible relationship between the three issues of participation, engagement and understanding. The study emerged from a conversation between colleagues about student evaluation of taught sessions. From this, a diagram outlining sectors of participation, engagement and understanding was constructed and a minute paper style instrument developed for easy implementation in large classes. The evaluation instrument was utilised with one class over a period of eight weeks involving four lectures, each utilising think/pair/share exercises to a different degree. The results show different levels of self-reported participation, engagement and understanding related to the frequency and occurrence of the think/pair/share exercises.