Books
The books below are our recommended reads to learn more about student engagement. Each book offers a unique insight into the topic whilst exploring case studies that apply student engagement techniques.
Reimagining the Higher Education Student- Constructing and Contesting Identities, edited by Rachael Brooks and Sarah O’Shea (2021)
Drawing on the perspectives of scholars and researchers from around the world, this book challenges dominant constructions of higher education students. Given the increasing number and diversity of such students, the book offers a timely discussion of the implicit and sometimes subtle ways that they are characterised or defined. Topics vary from the ways that curriculum designers ‘imagine’ learners, the complex and evolving nature of student identity work, through to newspaper and TV representations of university attendees.
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A Handbook for Student Engagement in Higher Education, edited by Tom Lowe and Yassein El Hakim (2020)
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Drawing on scholarship as well as established practice, A Handbook for Student Engagement in Higher Education is a sector-leading volume that unpacks the concept of student engagement. It provides ideas and examples alongside compelling theory- and research-based evidence to offer a thorough and innovative exploration of how students and staff can work together to genuinely transform the higher education learning experience.
The Power of Partnership: Students, Staff and Faculty Revolutionizing Higher Education, edited by Lucy Mercer-Mapstone and Sophia Abbot (2020)
This book examines the nuance and depth of student-faculty partnerships within Higher Education, illustrating the many ways in which partnership can transform individual lives and institutions. It uses a variety of creative genres such as reflection, poetry, dialogue, illustration and essay, with chapters provided both by renowned scholars as well as new staff and student voices.
Student as Producer: How Do Revolutionary Teachers Teach? by Mike Neary (2020)
This is a practical, probing response to the ongoing assault on higher education by the social power of Money and the State. Mike Neary grounds his answers in a version of Marx's social theory known as 'a new reading of Marx', as advanced by authors such as Werner Bonefeld and Moishe Postone. The theory is applied to various aspects of pedagogy, criminology, and political sociology to create a curriculum for revolutionary teaching that will aid activists and those involved with co-operative movements who are seeking ways in which to engage critically with higher education.
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Engaging Student Voices in Higher Education: Diverse Perspectives and Expectations in Partnership edited by Simon Lygo-Baker, Ian M. Kinchin and Naomi E. Winstone (2019)
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This book examines the importance of exploring the varied and diverse perspectives of student experiences. In both academic institutions and everyday discourse, the notion of the ‘student voice’ is an ever-present reminder of the importance placed upon the student experience in Higher Education: particularly in a context where the financial burden of undertaking a university education continues to grow.
Student Engagement in Higher Education: Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Approaches for Diverse Populations, edited by Stephen J. Quaye, Shaun R. Harper and Sumun L. Pendakur (2019)
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This book explores how diverse populations of students experience college differently and encounter group-specific barriers to success. Informed by relevant theories, each chapter focuses on engaging a different student population, including low-income students, Students of Colour, international students, students with disabilities, religious minority students, student-athletes, part-time students, adult learners, military-connected students, graduate students and others.
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Student Engagement and Quality Assurance in Higher Education: International Collaborations for the Enhancement of Learning, edited by Masahiro Tanaka (2019)
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Using a range of international examples to compare the reality, purpose and effect of student engagement in universities across the globe, Student Engagement and Quality Assurance in Higher Education argues that teachers and students need to collaborate to improve the quality of university education and student learning.
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College Students' Sense of Belonging by Terrell L. Strayhorn (2019)
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The 2nd Edition of College Students’ Sense of Belonging explores student sub-populations and campus environments, offering readers updated information about sense of belonging, how it develops for students, and a conceptual model for helping students belong and thrive. Underpinned by theory and research and offering practical guidelines for improving educational environments and policies, this book is an important resource for higher education and student affairs professionals, scholars, and graduate students interested in students’ success
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International Student Engagement in Higher Education: Transforming Practices, Pedagogies and Participation by Margaret Kettle (2018)
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By utilising a social practice conceptual model, the book explains the multiple dimensions of engagement that are often conflated in policy: the antecedents to engagement, the actions of engaging, and the achievements and outcomes of engagement. As a result, the book is able to address issues such as how English comes to matter in international student academic practice; the teaching and assessment approaches that promote international student engagement; and the metacognitive, cognitive and affective strategies that international students use to achieve academic and personal transformation.
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Student Engagement in Neoliberal Times: Theories and Practices for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education by Nick Zepke (2018)
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This book investigates origins, meanings, uses and effects of student engagement in higher education, and addresses three core questions: (1) Why is student engagement so visible in higher education today? (2) What are its dominant characteristics? (3) What is missing in the popular view of student engagement? These questions pave the way for a fresh approach to student engagement. The book argues that an elective affinity between student engagement and policies embedded in neoliberalism, the dominant ideology of the early 21st century, enables student engagement to transcend diverse intellectual and practice contexts. This affinity encourages quality learning and teaching that enables student to succeed in their studies and future careers.
Understanding and Developing Student Engagement, edited by Colin Bryson (2014)
Understanding and Developing Student Engagement draws from a range of contributors in a wide variety of roles in Higher Education and all contributors are actively involved in the Researching, Advancing and Inspiring Student Engagement (RAISE) Network. This book uncovers the multi-dimensional nature of student engagement, utilising case examples from both student and staff perspectives, and provides conceptual clarity and strong evidence about this rather elusive notion. It provides a firm foundation from which to discuss practices and policies that might best serve to foster engagement.
The Student Engagement Handbook, Practice in Higher Education By Elisabeth Dunne and Derfel Owen (2013)
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This book highlights some of the national and global agendas and issues, from emerging sectors, to the meaning of student engagement for different stakeholders. It provides a backdrop to themes of student engagement as well as examples of innovative and inspiring means of engaging with students in practice, empowering them to take responsibility within decision-making processes and enabling them to lead and deliver change.
Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: A Guide for Faculty by Alison Cook-Sather, Catherine Bovill and Peter Felten (2014)
A guide to developing productive student-faculty partnerships in higher education Student-faculty partnerships is an innovation that is gaining traction on campuses across the country. There are few established models in this new endeavour, however. Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: A Guide for Faculty offers administrators, faculty, and students both the theoretical grounding and practical guidelines needed to develop student-faculty partnerships that affirm and improve teaching and learning in higher education.
Handbook of Research on Student Engagement, edited by Sandra L. Christenson, Amy Reschly and Cathy Wylie (2012)
The Handbook guides readers through the field’s rich history, sorts out its component constructs, and identifies knowledge gaps to be filled by future research. Grounding data in real-world learning situations, contributors analyse indicators and facilitators of student engagement, link engagement to motivation, and gauge the impact of family, peers, and teachers on engagement in elementary and secondary grades. Findings on the effectiveness of classroom interventions are discussed in detail. And because assessing engagement is still a relatively new endeavour, chapters on measurement methods and issues round out this important resource.
The Student Voice Handbook: Bridging the Academic/Practitioner Divide by Gerry Czerniawski and Warren Kid (2011)
This topical text locates Student Voice within wider current debates around empowered citizenry and the 'big society'. The contributions draw upon the relationships between Student Voice and action research, citizenship, democratic education and students-as-researchers as well as locating these debates within international perspectives. It is through the combination of these perspectives that, as the title of the book suggests, the Student Voice movement can hope to 'bridge the academic/practitioner divide'.
Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter by George D. Kuh, Jillian Kinzie, John H. Schuh and Elizabeth J. Whitt (2010)
This book clearly shows the benefits of student learning and educational effectiveness that can be realized when these conditions are present. Based on the Documenting Effective Educational Practice (DEEP) project from the Centre for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University, this book provides concrete examples from twenty institutions that other colleges and universities can learn from and adapt to help create a success-oriented campus culture and learning environment.
Helping Sophomores Succeed: Understanding and Improving the Second Year Experience by Mary Stuart Hunter, Barbara F. Tobolowsky, John N. Gadner, Scott E. Evenbeck, Jerry A. Pattengale, Molly Schaller and Laurie A. Schreiner (2009)
Helping Sophomores Succeed offers an in-depth, comprehensive understanding of the common challenges that arise in a student's second year of college. Sponsored by the University of South Carolina's National Resource Centre for The First-Year Experience® and Students in Transition, this ground-breaking book offers an examination of second-year student success and satisfaction using both quantitative and qualitative measures from national research findings.
Handbook of Quality Assurance for University Teaching, edited by Roger Ellis and Elaine Hogard
This practical and authoritative handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the issues and approaches to assuring quality in university teaching. Including contributions from major international figures, the book contains a wealth of ideas and practical advice to help universities commit to quality in teaching and offers insights into how the topics raised can be directly applied.
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Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures Of Student Attribution by Vincent Tinto (1994)
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In this 1994 classic work on student retention, Vincent Tinto synthesizes far-ranging research on student attrition and on actions institutions can and should take to reduce it. The key to effective retention, Tinto demonstrates, is in a strong commitment to quality education and the building of a strong sense of inclusive educational and social community on campus. He applies his theory of student departure to the experiences of minority, adult, and graduate students, and to the situation facing commuting institutions and two-year colleges. Especially critical to Tinto’s model is the central importance of the classroom experience and the role of multiple college communities.
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Four Critical Years: Effects of College on Beliefs, Attitudes, and Knowledge by Alexander W. Astin (1977)
Four Critical Years takes an in-depth look at those potential effects beyond those that are immediately obvious. The book investigates how one's attitudes, beliefs and sense of self are affected by going to college, how behaviour is affected, what patterns of behaviour emerge from going to college, and the permanence of the effects of attending college.