Research On Undergraduates' Learning Engagement From The Perspective Of Discipline Cultures

Based on the survey data of SERU2016(Student Experience in Research University 2016)in Nanjing University,this thesis analyzes of the status of learning engagement of undergraduate students of Nanjing University from the perspective of the cultures of disciplines.It finds differences in learning engagement of different disciplines and compares the learning engagement characteristics of students in different disciplines.Also,it clarifies how he cultures of disciplines affects learning engagement.This study has two main purposes:First,the study will contribute to broadening the perspective of learning engagement and enrich the theory in learning engagement.Second,the study stands on the perspective of cultures of disciplines to understand learning engagement that will good for guiding practices in education and teaching reforms.The research issues discussed in this paper include:What is the basic situation of the learning engagement of students in different subjects in Nanjing University?According to the characteristics of the discipline,what types of basic types can students be divided into?How do different types of students have outstanding learning engagement differences and characteristics?Trying to understand these types and learning engagement characteristics from a disciplinary cultural perspective?Based on the specific characteristics of learning engagement,what specific teaching suggestions can be put forward to improve the learning effect?This research mainly uses the questionnaire survey method and uses SPSS21.0 to analyze the data.The data analysis methods use in this study are descriptive statistics,factor analysis,cluster analysis,analysis of variance and regression analysis.There are some findings as follows:(1)The learning engagement of students in all disciplines is moderate.In terms of learning behavioral engagement,class engagement,peer interaction,and teacher-student interaction are poor,but study habits perform better.In terms of learning time engagement,most science and engineering students spend more time on in-class and out-of-class studies and most students in the humanities and social sciences invest more time in social and leisure activities.In general,the learning behavioral engagement of students in science and engineering disciplines is not as good as do students in the humanities and social sciences.And learning time engagement of students in science and engineering disciplines is better than students in the humanities and social sciences.(2)By using clustering analysis,it is found that there are four types of disciplines named as hard-pure science,hard-application science,soft-application science and soft-pure science.These names refer to Becher's disciplinary culture theory.Although learning behavior engagement does not reflect the type of discipline well,this study finds that clustering through time dimension is the most effective dimension to distinguish undergraduate disciplinary types.This study hypothesizes that learning engagement of Chinese students does not suit to analyze he type of discipline(especially learning behavior engagement),which also illustrates the characteristics of Chinese students.(3)By using means of analysis of variance and regression analysis and controlling the students' personal background variables and institutional environment variables,this study compares the learning engagement of the four types of disciplines.It is found that,students in hard-pure science and hard-application science perform worse than students in soft-application science in class engagement.What's more,students in hard-pure science,hard-application and soft-pure science perform worse than students in soft-application science in peer interaction.Moreover,students in hard-pure science and hard-application science perform significantly worse than students in soft-application science in study habits.In addition,students in hard-pure science perform worse than students in soft-application science and students in soft-application perform significantly better than students in soft-application science in teacher-student interaction.In learning time engagement,students in hard-pure science perform better than students in soft-application science.(4)Through regression analysis,it is also found some other learning engagement status and other factors that influence learning engagement.First,in gender differences,male students' learning habits are poor,indicating that they need to be strengthened.Second,in grade,sophomores' learning behavioral engagement is poor,and the phenomenon of "sophomore lump" exists.Furthermore,family background,goals of career or academic,internal,and external learning motivation,parts of families and social responsibility are all have a positive effect on learning engagement.In terms of learning disabilities,firstly the student's own obstacles are not conducive to students'learning behavioral engagement,but family and social factors have a positive impact on students' class engagement,peer interaction,and teacher-student interaction.Students' physical and psychological barriers have a positive effect on learning time engagement.Finally,students' perceptions of the degree of emphasis on undergraduate education in schools have a positive effect on students' various types learning engagement.Therefore,this study gives the following suggestions.First,improving the learning engagement of students and promoting interactive cooperative learning engagement.On the one hand,colleges should further update the educational concept,stimulate students' willingness to participate in learning,and increase students' initiative in learning.On the other hand,teachers should actively change teaching methods,advocate heuristics and participatory teaching,and increase the opportunities and quality of teacher-student interaction.Second,we should pay attention to the gender and grade differences of students' participation in learning to help students establish relevant academic goals as soon as possible.Colleges should make full use of the positive help of the student career development plan to help students prepare and plan better for the university's four-year study.Third,clarifying the deep influence of Chinese culture,and respecting Chinese students' own characteristics.We should gradually promote education reform that suits Chinese students and incorporate the positive influence of traditional culture.Fourth,we should understand the cultural differences of disciplines and improve learning engagement pertinently.We should understand cultural differences and conform to the discipline's own laws.Based on understanding,it is necessary to combine the characteristics of various types of disciplines and improve learning engagement in a targeted manner.