PORTRAIT OF THE DISENGAGED

Research & Occasional Paper Series: CSHE.9. 12 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY http://cshe.berkeley. edu/ SERU Project and Consortium Research Paper * PORTRAIT OF THE DISENGAGED June 2012 Steven Brint University of California, Riverside CSHE Faculty Research Associate Allison M. Cantwell University of California, Riverside ABSTRACT Copyright 2012 Steven Brint and Allison M. Cantwell, all rights reserved. The topic of undergraduate academic engagement has been a matter of intense inquiry for more than a generation. This paper examines the other side of the coin: the size and characteristics of academically disengaged populations. Drawing on classic sociological work on conformity and deviance, we theorize four dimensions of student academic disengagement: values disengagement, behavioral disengagement, alternative involvement, and interactional disengagement. Using survey data, we estimate the size of disengaged populations along each of these dimensions and the characteristics of students who are more likely to be found among disengaged populations. In this sample of students from a selective public research university system, the size of the disengaged population varies between 10 and 25 percent, depending on the measure used. Male students, students with low college GPAs, and students in the arts, humanities, and social sciences were more likely to be found among disengaged populations. We conclude by proposing treatments for disengagement attuned to each of the four dimensions and to these disengagement-prone populations. The topic of undergraduate academic engagement has been a matter of intense inquiry since the mid-1980s when two major reports, one sponsored by the National Institute of Education (NIE Study Group 1984) and the other by the National Governor’s Association (NGA 1986), brought the issue to scholarly and public attention. Chickering and Gamson’s “seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education” (1987) underscored the role of pedagogical practice in the formation of academically engaged students. The inauguration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) in 2000 deepened interest across the country in the qualities and consequences of academic engagement (see, e.g., Kuh 2003). Five NSSE “benchmark” scales measure student-faculty interaction, active and collaborative learning, academic challenges, educational enrichment activities, and supportive institutional climate. Although not without critics (see, e.g., LaNasa, Cabrera, and Transgrud 2009), these five benchmarks have become institutionalized as part of the conventional wisdom for producing academically engaged students in college. A more recent literature on college student learning brings into sharper focus concerns about how many and what types of students are disengaged from their studies and therefore wasting opportunities for intellectual and human capital development. This research has challenged the extent to which colleges and universities are producing significant gains in student learning in spite of their attention to benchmarks of engagement (Carini, Kuh, and Klein 2006). Former Harvard President Derek Bok (2006) described U.S. four-year colleges and universities as “under-achieving” in undergraduate education, in spite of their evident concern for creating engaging environments. More recently, sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa (2011) provided evidence, using the Collegiate Learning Assessment, that only a little more than one-third of college students achieved The SERU Project and Consortium. SERU is a collaborative of major research universities based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley and including the administration of the SERU survey of undergraduates. For more information, see the SERU website at: http://cshe.berkeley. edu/research/seru/