Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University Dissertations Graduate Research 2018 Use of Stories in Courses and Student Engagement at Southwestern Michigan College Heather Day Andrews University, thompsoh@andrews.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.edu/dissertations Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Day, Heather, "Use of Stories in Courses and Student Engagement at Southwestern Michigan College" (2018).edu/dissertations/1661 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Research at Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contact repository@andrews. ABSTRACT USE OF STORIES IN COURSES AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AT SOUTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE by Heather Day Chair: Jay Brand ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH Dissertation Andrews University School of Education Title: USE OF STORIES IN COURSES AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AT SOUTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE Name of researcher: Heather Day Name and degree of faculty chair: Jay Brand, Ph.
Date completed: June 2018 The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the relationship between the use of narrative in the classroom and student engagement. In this regard, the strategies used to connect students to learning experiences are important to ensuring their engagement. Research questions addressed: 1) What is the level of academic engagement among students at Southwestern Michigan College? 2) To what extent are stories embedded into academic courses? 3) To what extent is student engagement related to the use of stories in students’ courses? To address these research questions, the researcher used two surveys. Survey one used secondary data collected from the 36-item Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) conducted at Southwestern Michigan College (SMC) in Spring of 2016.
Survey two was administered online to students who had participated in the CCSSE, also in Spring of 2016. This survey measured student perceptions of teacher narrative use in the classroom. Both surveys used a non-experimental quantitative approach to explore the correlations among narrative use and student engagement. A factor analysis was performed using principal components analysis with varimax (orthogonal) rotation to examine any possible constructs or patterns in the responses to survey two.
The results of the exploratory factor analysis associated survey items with two factors. Factor one measured the use of stories not related to course content. Factor two measured the use of stories related to course content. Student perceptions regarding the extent to which faculty shared stories was measured with a Likert scale representing frequencies ranging from Never to Every Time.
The researcher was interested in any potential associations between student engagement and the independent variable of storytelling. A canonical correlation analysis was conducted using the five benchmarks in the CCSSE to measure student engagement, as predictors of the nine-item use-of-narrative variables to evaluate the multivariate shared relationships between these two variable sets. The researcher found that students in this sample, compared to national norms, are more engaged in active/collaborative learning, academic challenge, student-faculty interaction and support for learners. Overall, stories were imbedded in courses between 50% to 70% of the time.
Although most results showed only a weak positive correlation, there were three benchmarks showing a positive correlation with the use of stories: active/collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, and support for students; a significant proportion of the variance in all three of these factors can be explained by use of stories that are related to courses. In fact, the results indicated that approximately 15% of the variance in student engagement could be explained by the use of stories in the classroom. In addition to its salient practical considerations, this study improves somewhat on the current dearth in investigations that measure the success of the integration of stories in teaching at community colleges. Additionally, most of the studies on engagement in higher education have reflected traditionally aged university students.
No previous studies have been conducted that specifically examine the effects of the integration of stories in the classroom on student engagement at SMC, featuring a relatively young student population. Andrews University School of Education USE OF STORIES IN COURSES AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AT SOUTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Heather Day June 2018 ©Copyright by Heather Day 2018 All Rights Reserved USE OF STORIES IN COURSES AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AT SOUTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE A dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy by Heather Day APPROVAL BY THE COMMITTEE: _______________________________ ______________________________ Chair: Jay Brand Dean, School of Education Robson Marinho _______________________________ Member: Jimmy Kijai _______________________________ Member: Maria DeRose _______________________________ ______________________________ External: Ruth Horton Date approved TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES. v LIST OF TABLES. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
2 Stories and Pedagogy. 5 Stories in the Classroom. 6 Southwestern Michigan College Demographics. 9 Statement of the Problem.
9 Purpose of the Study. 11 Rationale for the Study. 11 Significance and Importance of Study. 15 Definition of Terms.
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE. 22 Higher Education and Engagement. 23 Stories in the Literature. 27 Stories and the Brain.
33 Stories and Teaching. 60 iii Data Analysis. 66 Description of Participants. 67 Reliability Estimates of Student Engagement Variables.
67 Analysis by Research Questions. 70 Level of Student Engagement. 70 Use of Stories in Classes. 73 Use of Stories and Student Engagement.
75 Summary of Findings. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS. 80 A Brief Review of the Literature. 95 Implications for Policy and Practices.
96 Implications for Future Research. Use of Stories Survey. Community College Survey of Student Engagement. 126 iv LIST OF FIGURES 1.
Conceptual Framework—Constructivist Schema of Learning. 13 LIST OF TABLES 1. Reliability Estimates of Student Engagement Variables. Rotated Principal Component Analysis Loadings.
Level of Student Engagement. Percent of Students Who Met Engagement Criteria. Student Engagement by Gender Match (Student and Instructor). Means and Standard Deviations of "Story" Items.
Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlation Coefficients. Canonical Correlation Analysis Result. 77 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CCSSE Community College Survey of Student Engagement MBE Mind, Brain, and Education Science NSSE National Survey of Student Engagement SCT Symbolic Convergence Theory SMC Southwestern Michigan College TOM Theory of Mind vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION According to Abrahamson (1998), “Storytelling is the foundation of the teaching profession” (pp. Imparting knowledge to students and being a catalyst for their personal and intellectual growth have long been the charge of the teacher.
Storytelling provides fundamental narratives that serve to trigger a sense of engagement and attention in students to facilitate learning. Stories have always fascinated me. My father exemplified this process of stories creating engagement when I was a child; he was the best storyteller I knew. Many years later, I can still remember the larger than life applications that he taught me through the power of stories.
Somewhat later, but exemplifying a similar experience, during my first year as a teacher, the chair of my department inspired my respect in his storytelling ability. I sat in on one of his lectures, and I observed him draw in his students; they were hanging on his every word, thoroughly engaged. In contrast, at only 23 years old, nervous in front of 30 students, uncertain of my ability to convince them that I had the information they needed to learn, I did not feel the same sense of engagement in my classroom. After the lecture, I spoke with him: “I wish my students would be as attentive in my classroom as yours were,” I admitted.
1 “I am 70 years old,” he whispered, leaning toward me; “I have more stories than you do.” This seed of wisdom subsequently germinated into my desire to incorporate stories into my teaching and led to my seeking how best to use stories to raise engagement levels among students in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the use of narrative and student engagement. This dissertation specifically investigated and reported the relationship between stories and levels of classroom engagement at Southwestern Michigan College (SMC). It also examined gender influences on both faculty and students while using narrative on student engagement.
Background A fundamental demographic change in the pool of college-age students (18 to 24 years old) is contributing to a looming crisis for educational institutions. New data released by the National Center for Education Statistics project that the number of high school graduates will only increase by 2% by 2022 (Adams, 2014). According to Adams (2014), between 1997 and 2011, the number of first-time first-year students grew by 39%. However, again by 2022, that growth will slow to 16%.
This will have a direct impact on colleges, as they will experience slower growth in enrollment for the next 10 years. In response to this enrollment trend, education administrators and recruiters at colleges and universities are increasingly resorting to retention studies to address the problem of declining enrollment. Martin (1996) noted that this competition for students and increased attention to retention first became prominent in the late 1990s. Until then, 2 many institutions had not expended a great deal of effort on admissions, as they were able to maintain their necessary number of applicants without any focused strategy.
One possible approach to improve the prospects of individual institutions, in the light of these somewhat dismal national trends, involves increasing student engagement. Extensive research supports the contention that active classroom engagement results in both higher retention and graduation rates (Harper & Quaye, 2009), perhaps because as engagement increases, the perceived value of the institution increases, decreasing the likelihood of a student’s need to transfer. For example, one study suggested that when teachers are perceived by students as approachable and sensitive to student needs, students work harder and are more willing to participate in class discussion (Mearns, Meyer, & Bharadwaj, 2007). Researchers have identified a variety of engagement techniques that, when implemented by college instructors, lead to an increase in classroom engagement (Bryson & Hand, 2007; Mearns et al.
Kuh, Kinzie, Buckley, Bridges, and Hayek (2006) identified a correlation between deep learning experiences and the promotion of student engagement. Some common examples of deep learning experiences happen when learners are able to work collaboratively, communicate effectively, solve complex problems and incorporate instructor feedback. In their literature review, Scott and Dinham (2008) concluded that narratives were a useful tool for creating deep learning experiences, making them a powerful strategy for classroom engagement. Harper and Quaye (2009) also observed that narrative positively affected classroom engagement.
Additionally, Zepke and Leach (2010) concluded that teachers and teaching strategies were central to classroom 3 engagement, which makes the tools and strategies used to create that engagement highly important. The available relevant evidence links the use of narrative in the classroom to student engagement, and engagement to student retention, which is one possible approach to declining enrollments. It can be argued that the more engaged students find themselves in learning experiences, the greater the level of perceived value they place on the classrooms and instructors that deliver those deep learning experiences. The higher the value placed on their current place of learning, the lower the likelihood a student would feel the need to transfer.
The strategies used to connect students to learning experiences are important to ensuring engagement. Further research has discussed how narratives may affect the brains of students in ways that facilitate learning new information. Narratives provide a way for brains to embed detail while simultaneously providing the large-scale guiding structure for understanding illustrated concepts. By examining how unconscious engagement occurs through narrative, Espinosa (2010) explained how a narrative engages students by using the strategies that the brain already uses in facilitating learning.
Bryson and Hand (2007) found that classrooms with high levels of student engagement were created by teachers who demanded high standards and made time available to discuss academic progress.