Abstract
ABSTRACTIn this article we explore the potential for attempts to encourage student engagement to be conceptualised as behaviour change activity, and specifically whether a new framework to guide such activity has potential value for the Higher Education (HE) sector. The Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) (Michie, Susan, Maartje M van Stralen, and Robert West. 2011. “The Behaviour Change Wheel: A New Method for Characterising and Designing Behaviour Change Interventions.” Implementation Science : IS 6 (1): 42. doi:10.1186/1748-5908-6-42) is a framework for the systematic design and development of behaviour change interventions. It has yet to be applied to the domain of student engagement. This article explores its potential, by assessing whether the BCW comprehensively aligns with the state of student engagement as currently presented in the HE literature. This work achieves two things. It firstly allows a prima facie assessment of whether student engagement activity can be readily aligned with the BCW framework. It also highlights omissions and prevalence of activity types in the HE sector, compared with other sectors where behaviour change practice is being successfully applied.
Highlights
Student engagement is highly correlated with student activity (Kahu, 2013), and such activity is related to better retention, completion rates (Thomas 2012) gains in content knowledge, skills, competencies or personal development (McGrath et al 2015; Brooman and Darwent 2014)
Most of the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) categories were readily found in the student engagement guidance, with varying frequency
The determinants of the BCW, which sit at the core of the framework, are all to be found in the Higher Education (HE) literature
Summary
Student engagement is highly correlated with student activity (Kahu, 2013), and such activity is related to better retention, completion rates (Thomas 2012) gains in content knowledge, skills, competencies or personal development (McGrath et al 2015; Brooman and Darwent 2014). There is no shortage of data available to capture the student’s view of their university experience and levels of engagement Liu, Bridgeman, and Adler 2012), but the factors which influence levels of engagement in academic activities are still unclear (Xerri, Radford, and Shacklock 2017). The academy needs to evidence the direct link between specific student engagement initiatives and learning gain (Thomas 2012). The challenge is made more difficult by the fact that what constitutes a ‘student engagement’ initiative is still being clarified (Bryson, 2015)
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