Dika, S. L., & Lim, J. H. (2012, June), Critical Review of Research on the Role of Social Engagement   Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21126

\bibitem{asee_peer_21126}
  Dika, S. L., \& Lim, J. H. (2012, June), \emph{Critical Review of Research on the Role of Social Engagement }
  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas.
  10.18260/1-2--21126

Sandra Loree Dika and Jae Hoon Lim.  "Critical Review of Research on the Role of Social Engagement ".  2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2012.  https://peer.asee.org/21126 Internet.  22 Apr, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_21126}
  Sandra Loree Dika and Jae Hoon Lim.
  "Critical Review of Research on the Role of Social Engagement ".
  \emph{2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2012.
  https://peer.asee.org/21126 Internet.  22 Apr, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_21126
author = "Sandra Loree Dika and Jae Hoon Lim"
title = "Critical Review of Research on the Role of Social Engagement "
booktitle = "2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2012"
month = "June"
address = "San Antonio, Texas"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/21126}
number = {10.18260/1-2--21126}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -           Critical Review of Research on the Role of Social Engagement           in Engineering Students’ Retention and Academic SuccessThe purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of the existing literature related to theconstruct of “social engagement,” which has been studied as one important predictor ofengineering student retention and academic success.Background and motivation. For many years, researchers have highlighted the critical role ofsocial engagement in college student retention and academic success. Astin (1993) emphasizedthat the single most influential factor in college student development was the peer group, linkingsense of community with overall satisfaction with college. To increase retention, Tinto (1990)suggested that freshman students should be integrated into social and academic communitiesearly in their freshman year. Researchers have also suggested that some types of socialengagement are critical to the academic success and retention of female and underrepresentedethnic minority students (e.g., Chachra et al., 2009; Kilgore et al., 2009).However, with the increasing number of research studies in engineering education during the lasttwo decades, researchers have begun to acknowledge that a retention and academic successmodel for engineering students may differ from those of non-engineering majors. In an analysisof a national data set on student engagement, Lichtenstein et al. (2010) noted that engineeringstudents reported spending similar amounts of time on co-curricular activities and volunteerwork as non-engineering students; however, time spent in these activities did not contribute toexplaining persistence or graduation. Using data from University of Michigan, Veenstra et al.(2009) proposed a model listing seven pre-collegiate predictors that contribute to the academicsuccess of freshman engineering students, including social engagement. While Veenstra et al.acknowledged that the construct of social engagement is measured in many different ways and itis hard to identify a significant trend in the use of the construct, they concluded that socialengagement is more significant in research on general college education than in engineeringeducation.Methods and results. In this paper, we present a critical analysis of previous studies using theconcept of social engagement, and explicate four major reasons for contradictory research resultsregarding the role of this construct in engineering student retention and academic success: a)inconsistent use of measures for the construct, b) significant flaws inherent to the assessmentmeasures, c) issues with the construct and theory development itself, and d) misinterpretations ofsurvey or other quantitative data.Conclusions and significance. We propose that the construct of “social engagement” be re-developed reflecting the unique characteristics of the engineering fields and engineering studentdispositions, and a valid instrument be created and consistently used in future studies in order todraw a reasonable evaluation of the construct in engineering student retention and academicsuccess. We also highlight the need for research that investigates dispositions and patterns ofsocial engagement among sub-groups of engineering students. Critical analyses of assessmentmeasures, such as the one undertaken in this paper, are essential to advance our understanding ofthe mechanisms that affect student learning and success in engineering education.
AU  - Sandra Loree Dika
AU  - Jae Hoon Lim
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Critical Review of Research on the Role of Social Engagement 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21126
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21126
ER  -