Productive Engagement in "Big D" Discourses: Understanding Engagement in a First-Year Experience

• In Event: 29.044 - Practices That Support Learning in Higher Education Across the Years and Across the Globe

Abstract

This case study of a biology course within a First Year Experience (FYE) examines classroom activities and student talk in service of understanding learning beyond retention and Grade Point Average (GPA). Productive disciplinary engagement (Engle & Conant, 2002) was used as a guiding framework for analysis. Data was collected via field notes, video recordings, and instructor artifacts to make direct interpretations. Student talk in the video recordings was then qualitatively coded to construct aggregate interpretations. Productive disciplinary talk occurred both in the discipline of biology and “being a college student”. This paper begins to unpack the unique learning that occurs in one FYE and highlights the importance of learning to be a college student as a discipline.

Author

• Andrea M. Rehak, Indiana University