Culture, Curriculum and Classroom: Three factors that enable and foster student engagement in their learning and educational effectiveness
“Student success and educational effectiveness rest on interactions between institutional culture, curriculum— both content and assessment; including curricular and co-curriculars—, and the interpersonal dynamic of the educational experience of the “classroom” at large.”
Culture
Culture fundamentally shapes the educational experience, enabling and impacting outcomes across the entire institution
A culture that fosters student engagement, success, and educational outcomes is one that:
Embodies shared values: based on criteria of choosing, prizing, and acting
Demonstrates cultural humility and anti-racist practices
Fosters belonging and mattering in the learning community
Promotes agency and autonomy to foster intrinsic motivation conceptualized by self-determination theory, grounded in autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Encourages and develops interpersonal interactions guided by emotional intelligence
Prioritizes psychological safety, interpersonal risk-taking, and collaboration
Curriculum
Curriculum and assessment practices must be deliberately designed to promote inclusive and meaningful student engagement
Effective curriculum and assessment practices derive from an institution’s mission and context, reflect and promote key elements of culture such as agency and mattering, and align with practices across the institution: including co-curriculars, extracurriculars and student services.
Classroom
The classroom is both the physical space and the mode(s) of instruction— such as in-person, hybrid, or online— as well as characterizing the learning dynamic
“The classroom climate is traditionally defined as the general quality of the atmosphere or environment, such as “hospitable” or “chilly” (Hall & Sandler, 1982). The classroom dynamic includes the classroom climate as well as the distribution of talk-time, frequency and style of student engagement, and degree of instructor control. ”