Keeping Us Engaged: Student Perspectives (and Research-Based Strategies) on What Works and Why

This book offers faculty practical strategies to engage students that are research-grounded and endorsed by students themselves. Through student stories, a signature feature of this book, readers will discover why professor actions result in changed attitudes, stronger connections to others and the course material, and increased learning.Structured to cover the key moments and opportunities to increase student engagement, Christine Harrington covers the all-important first day of class where first impressions can determine students’ attitudes for the duration of the course, through to insights for rethinking assignments and enlivening teaching strategies, to ways of providing feedback that build students’ confidence and spur them to greater immersion in their studies, providing the underlying rationale for the strategies she presents. The student narratives not only validate these practices, offering their perspectives as learners, but constitute a trove of ideas and practices that readers will be inspired to adapt for their particular needs.Conscious of the changing demographics of today’s undergraduate and graduate students - racially more diverse, older, and many employed - Harrington highlights the need to engage all students and shares numerous strategies on how to do so. While many of the ideas presented were used by faculty teaching face to face classes, a number were developed by faculty teaching online, and the majority can be adapted to virtually any teaching environment. Based on student-centered active learning principles, structured to allow readers to quickly identify practices that they may need in particular instances or to infuse in a course as a whole, and presented without jargon, this book is a springboard for all faculty looking for ideas that will engage their students at any level and in any course.

Dr. Christine Harrington is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at New Jersey City University. She co-coordinates a newly established Ed.D. in Community College Leadership program. Prior to this position, she worked at Middlesex County College for 18 years as a Professor of Psychology and Student Success, the Director of the Center for the Enrichment of Learning and Teaching, Coordinator of Student Success and a Counselor. She also served a 2-year term as the Executive Director of the Center for Student Success at the NJ Council of County Colleges. Dr. Harrington is frequently invited to present at conferences and at colleges and universities.

José Antonio Bowen