Student Engagement in Active Learning and Social Environments in New Generation Universities: Experiences of Students

Abstract

The rise of globalization has brought an unprecedented wave of change whose major effect has been witnessed in a number of paradigm shifts within the education system. Such shifts have meant that the old educational institutions are no longer considered viable in regard to causing transformation of the education system. Consequent to this, the universities have taken on a new dimension in the shape of new generation universities. These universities are characteristic of active learning and social environments that transform the students via the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains to inform a holistic development. Nevertheless, for such to be realized, academic staff in these new generation universities ought to partake in student engagement in the active learning and social environments by making and enabling the students to play a lead role during the teaching and learning process in order for them to control and be responsible for their own destiny. Issuing from the above premise, this study was done to establish views of undergraduate and postgraduate students at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey, regarding the practices of academic staff geared towards realizing student engagement in active learning and social environments. This was done basing on five major dimensions: making student learning meaningful, fostering a sense of competence and autonomy, embracing collaborative learning, establishing positive educator-student relationships and promoting mastery learning orientations. Findings indicate that some dimensions were found to be highly successful like making students’ learning meaningful as well as promoting mastery learning orientations, while some were found to be moderately successful like fostering a sense of competence and autonomy as well as establishing positive educator-student relationships. One dimension, embracing collaborative learning, was found to be at a low level of success. Equally, some statistical differences were found in students’ demographic variables like gender, age and level of education in the dimensions of making students’ learning meaningful, fostering a sense of competence and autonomy, embracing collaborative learning as well as promoting mastery learning orientations.