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EDUC46630: Student Engagement: An agent of change for positive youth development and learning success

Type Open
Level 4
Credits 30
Availability Not available in 2024/2025
Module Cap None.
Location Durham
Department Education

Prerequisites

  • None.

Corequisites

  • None.

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None.

Aims

  • A consideration of student engagement in research, policy and practice with a particular focus on educational interventions that show promise in enhancing students' engagement.

Content

  • Broad overview:
  • In this module, we will consider theoretical and practical perspectives on student engagement focusing, in particular, on the following questions:
  • 1. What do engaged students look like?
  • 2. Why does student engagement matter?
  • 3. What are the antecedents and outcomes of engaged students and engaging contexts?
  • 4. How do contextual factors (schools, families, peers) influence students and, in turn, student outcomes?
  • 5. What is the relationship between engagement, learning and achievement?
  • 6. In what ways can student engagement be improved?
  • Summary of content:
  • Promoting student engagement from childhood to adolescence as a way to improve positive youth development and school completion.
  • Profiles of school disengagement and person-centred analytic techniques.
  • The intersection of student engagement and families a critical connection for achievement and life outcomes.
  • Peer relationships and engagement; supporting peer relationships to promote engagement.
  • Developmental dynamics of student engagement; engagement across developmental periods.
  • Instructional interventions that support student engagement; key facilitators of student engagement from an international perspective; classroom strategies to enhance academic engaged time.
  • Self-efficacy and engagement.
  • Creating caring classroom and school communities; social and emotional learning programmes and practices.
  • Nurturing motivation, engagement and resilience in students; the power of mind-sets.
  • Mental health interventions: empirical links between student engagement and mental health.
  • Measurement issues, instruments and approaches; measuring student engagement to inform effective interventions in schools.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • Critical understanding of theoretical and empirical conceptualisations of engagement definitions, significance, contextual influences, student outcomes and promising educational interventions.

Subject-specific Skills:

  • By the end of the module, students will be able to:
  • Identify and critically evaluate key research, including policy documents, that have sought to clarify conceptual issues and promote student engagement through interventions that aim to increase positive educational outcomes.
  • Apply theoretical perspectives to practical issues relevant to student engagement in different educational contexts.
  • Demonstrate a critical understanding of recent research in student engagement and ascertain the quality and strength of the existing evidence.

Key Skills:

  • Demonstrate the ability to research literature, including, for example, searching, synthesising, summarising and critiquing the relevant literature.
  • Demonstrate the ability to evaluate educational research.
  • Use ICT when presenting assignments.
  • Organise and plan.
  • Formulate, analyse and solve problems.
  • Learn independently.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • Lectures, workshops and seminars, including presentations from the students.
  • The objectives will be met largely through interactive workshops combining lecture and seminars with workshop tasks.
  • Each student will be required to give one 10 minute presentation in the course of the module; this will be summatively assessed.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lectures91 hour9Yes
Seminars and Workshops62.5 hours15Yes
Presentation4Yes
Preparation and Reading272 
Total300 

Summative Assessment

Component: AssignmentComponent Weighting: 80%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Assignment4000 words100Yes
Component: PresentationComponent Weighting: 20%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Presentation10 minutes100Yes

Formative Assessment

Completion of an assignment outline with bibliography.

More information

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