An Engaging Perspective
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Dr. Neil Quisenberry (right) creates opportunities for students to
learn both in and beyond the classroom.
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There has been a lot of talk recently within academia about student
engagement. In my opinion, this is a topic of conversation in which we should be interested. No matter what job one has or one’s position in society, it benefits all of us to have members of society who are engaged in their own communities in meaningful ways. This positive attitude toward engagement should begin in the home, but we as educators should do our part as well. I believe it is essential to promote student engagement in and outside the college classroom.
Long gone are the days when we could say that most learning takes place in class. In fact, experts argue that college students spend less than 20% of their time each week in curricular activities.1 As educators, we need to ensure that students are engaged in the material covered in the classroom, but we also need to help students constructively use the other 80% of their time. We need to stress the importance of becoming involved in any number of activities that will benefit the student and the community. Students should spend some of their time engaged in
activities such as internships to prepare them for their future careers, but they also need to understand the importance of giving back to their communities through their service. At McKendree University this is stressed to every incoming student. For example, first-year students who receive presidential scholarships at McKendree must perform 15 hours of volunteer service.
In addition to stressing the importance of civic engagement, we as educators should
also push engagement in the classroom. One of the ways I encourage students to
become engaged in their discipline is to help them prepare papers for presentation
at professional conferences. Each year I try to attend two professional conferences
and I often invite students to come along. At these conferences scholars present
their research and invite feedback from the audience. Generally, research first
appears at conferences before publication in professional journals. When students
attend, they are able to hear about cutting-edge research before they can actually
read about it in print.
Undergraduate students often do not know they can present research
at professional conferences. Because many of my students are working
on original research in their courses, it makes sense that they present
their findings to other scholars. I find that students are really anxious
about doing this, but they will take a leap of faith and sign up for the
conference.
Each of my students who have presented their research at conferences
has done an outstanding job and come away from the experience
excited and enthused about doing it again. These students begin to
see themselves as knowledgeable individuals in their field, get the
chance to meet other students who have the same interests as they
do, making themselves more marketable in the graduate school
application process. As an instructor, it is very exciting to see these
students grow both professionally and personally.
In addition to working with students on their own research, I have
also encouraged students to become a part of research with which
I am involved. For example, I asked two students to help me with
a research project that I presented last spring at a conference in Chicago.
These students were involved in all aspects of the research from the initial
brainstorming to the analysis of data. From a student engagement perspective,
I do not believe that they could have a more valuable research experience.
Students may not be ready to conceptualize and carry out their own research, but they
are more than willing to become involved in their professors’ research projects.
This allows them to be fully involved in the process without carrying all the responsibility
themselves. As a result of this experience, students are more prepared to do research
on their own, which means that they are more attractive to graduate programs and potential
employers. In fact, most of my students who have gone on to graduate school have
been offered research assistantships, which means they offer theirresearch services
in exchange for free or reduced tuition plus astipend. Clearly, having the ability to
conduct research has its advantages for our students.
Engaging senior-level criminal justice students helped me facilitate the
Core survey in the spring of 2006. Core is a national bi-annual survey
measuring drug and alcohol use among college students. Because I
was responsible for the project, and I needed a lot of help, I asked the
class to participate. They were very excited about becoming involved
and so it became a class project that semester. I became the lead
investigator and the students were my research team. We met
regularly about how we would choose the sample of students and how
we would go about finding each of them to complete a survey. The
students helped create the roster of names to survey, but they also
had the very arduous task of locating 400 students and administering
a 45-minute survey to each of them with nothing more than a candy
bar as enticement.
It was rewarding for me as their instructor to see my students all
over campus, candy bars in tow, administering surveys. I felt like they
really stepped up to the challenge and took their roles as researchers
seriously. Within a few weeks, we had all the students located and
all the surveys completed.
The students on my research team all felt a sense of accomplishment
at the work they had done in an actual research project. They were
able to see how research is conducted from start to finish in
the “real world.” They also saw some of the problems that
researchers face and helped come up with solutions to
overcome those problems. At the end of the project I held a party
at my house to reward them for a job well done. Students involved
in that project still tell me today how much they enjoyed it. In
addition, other students have heard about the project and ask
me when they might get to be involved with it.
Another important role that instructors can play to facilitate
student engagement is that of internship adviser. Students with senior
status at McKendree can do an internship where they work, usually
unpaid, in their future fields for university credit. I usually have about
five students a semester involved in internships. Internships are an
important part of a student’s education and take place almost entirely
away from campus. It is important for instructors to help direct
students to internship sites that match their interests and the Office of
Career Services on campus will help students apply for opportunities.
Students gain invaluable experience from these internships and are
engaged in the kinds of activities that they probably never experience
in the classroom. Through their internships, students often find future
employment at these sites. Even when an internship does not result in
employment after graduation, students involved in this program are
more prepared for the workforce and often find invaluable references
to help them find jobs.
McKendree students have completed internships at the Illinois State
Police, Federal Probation Office, many different police departments
in the area as well as the St. Louis Crime Lab. They are involved in
activities as varied as traffic stops, drug raids, autopsies and
background checks. Whatever the internship, these students have
the type of engagement that could only come from “real world”
experiences. I always look forward to reading the final reports my
students give me on their internship activities. I think I enjoy reading
about them as much as the students enjoy doing their internships.
My efforts to engage students both in and out of the classroom
began with small steps such as putting together a faculty panel to
discuss the graduate school experience. As my level of
comfort grew, I began engaging students in progressively larger
projects. I went from accompanying students to
conferences to helping students present their own research at
conferences. I have found each progressive step in student
engagement to be increasingly rewarding and students continue
to impress me with their abilities.
I believe we all have a role to play in helping students to become
more engaged both in and out of the classroom. McKendree's small
class sizes give me a chance to get to know my students; I know what their
interests are and what projects they enjoy. I also know what internship sites
my students would like. This would be a much more difficult task with a larger
number of students. In addition, because we know our students quite
well at McKendree, we can monitor their progress and determine
when they are ready to move to the next level of engagement. I only
push students to do internships and present their research when I feel
they are ready.
As a result of these efforts, students should graduate from McKendree
more prepared to become active members of society and better
equipped for their future careers. In addition, they hopefully become
more aware of the importance of becoming involved in society rather
than simply being observers from the sidelines.
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