Mind the Gap: Overview of FSSE and BCSSE

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Mind the Gap Overview of FSSE and BCSSE

• Jillian Kinzie
• NSSE

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The family of NSSE surveys

• FSSE emerged from the field as a tool to
  promote faculty reflection on student engagement
• BCSSE obvious pre-test to NSSE can we measure
  what the institution contributes to student
  engagement, or value-added?
• LSSSE Law School Survey

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Rejected essies

• Student Affairs Survey of Student Engagement
  (sassy!)
• Administrator Survey of Student Engagement
  (!_at_)
• Medical School Survey of Student Engagement
  (messy!)
• Graduate School Survey of Student Engagement
• ..We are focused on UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION.
  Surveys grounded in body of research on
  undergraduate student learning and development.

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Faculty Survey of Student Engagement
(pronounced fessie)

• FSSE measures faculty expectations and
  activities related to student engagement in
  effective educational practices

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FSSE and NSSE Point to Disorienting Dilemmas

• Situations in which usual perspectives or ways
  of responding do not work or dont fit are more
  likely to motivate us to learn and change
  (Mezirow, 1990)

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Faculty Priorities and Student Engagement
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Faculty Priorities and Selected Student Outcomes
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What to make of this?

• When faculty members emphasize certain
  educational practices, students engage in them to
  a greater extent than their peers elsewhere.
• Good things go together

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Deep Learning Sub-ScaleIntegrative Learning

• Worked on a paper or project that required
  integrating ideas or information from various
  sources
• Included diverse perspectives (different races,
  religions, genders, political beliefs, etc.) in
  class discussions or writing assignments
• Put together ideas or concepts from different
  courses when completing assignments or during
  class discussions
• Discussed ideas from your readings or classes
  with faculty members outside of class
• Discussed ideas from your readings or classes
  with others outside of class (students, family
  members, co-workers, etc.)

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Disciplinary ComparisonsIntegrative Learning
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BCSSE

• How much do students background characteristics
  affect NSSE scores?
• Are institutions benchmark scores the result of
  good practices or good recruitment?
• Pilot 04, 05,06

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BCSSE

• BCSSE measures
• HS experiences Importance of college activities
• Baseline self-assessment of knowledge and skills
• Demographics
• Use to examine gap between expectations and
  engagement
• Study effect of students background on NSSE
  scores

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Focus on First-year students Expectations for
Engagement

• High importance
• Asking questions
• Come to class with readings/assignments completed
• Discuss grades/assignmt with faculty
• Talk about career plans
• Feedback on performance
• Work hard
• Learn something that changes way you understand
  issue
• Low or mixed importance
• Make class presentation
• Work with peers in AND out of class
• Tutor peers
• Service learning
• Work with faculty on activities other than
  coursework
• Discuss ideas with others, and also faculty
  outside of class

• Important NSSEville emphasis
• Spend significant amount of time studying
• Provides support to succeed academically
• Encouraging contact among students from different
  economic, social, racial-ethnic backgrounds
• Less important NSSEville emphasis
• Helping students cope with non-academic
  responsibilities
• Provide support to thrive socially
• Using computers in academic work

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Mind the Gap FY expectations and engagement

• Match value to engagement
• Ask questions in class
• Prepare 2 drafts
• Work on integrated paper
• Include diverse perspectives
• Work with peers out of class
• Put together different ideas
• Tutor peers
• Service learning
• Used email

• Discuss ideas with faculty
• Receive feedback
• Discuss ideas with others
• Serious conversation race-ethnicity
• Serious conversation beliefs
• Better understand diff POV
• Learn something change view on issue

High value- High engagement - Low value
Low engagement

• Students who do not value activity are less
  motivated to participate in it in college.
• How to re-shape student values concerning
  activity?

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Mind the Gap FY expectations and engagement

• Mixed value Low engagement
• Class presentation
• Work with peers in class
• Work with faculty on activities

• High value Mixed engagement
• Discussed grades
• Talk about career plans
• Work hard
• Examine strength of views

• Activity is valued, but students dont do it
  much Is sometimes an acceptable response?

• College providing students with fewer experiences
  than they anticipated

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Mind the Gap FY expectations and engagement

• Time Gaps
• 45 entering students expect to spend 20 hrs per
  week studying, but only 30 actually spent this
  much time studying
• FY spent less time in co-curriculars (avg. 5 hrs
  per week) than they expected (avg. 11 hrs per
  week)
• Estimates for working were slightly higher
  relaxing socializing about what they expected

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Patterns in FY NSSE Results 2004-2006

• Student Faculty Interaction
• FY have less interaction with faculty outside
  class
• Enriching Experiences
• Some flux over the years.
• Plan to do an internship
• Study abroad (71 plan to do in 2005 63 in
  2006)
• More emphasis on attending campus events
• FY students plans match what Seniors report in
  terms of Enriching Experiences
• 51 FY plan to do research with faculty 52
  seniors do

• Diversity Experiences
• Slightly more FY report conversations with
  students of different race-ethnicity
• More FY SR perceive an institutional emphasis
  on encouraging contact among students from
  different economic, social and racial-ethnic
  backgrounds
• More FY report gains in understanding people of
  other racial-ethnic backgrounds