Abstract:

Since the last decade, the concept of student engagement has become a catch-all term in the provision of quality educational practice and outcomes in tertiary education. However, in the context of a changing tertiary education landscape and increasing student diversity, understanding and dealing with student engagement so as to provide the best learning environment for our students has become problematic. For the purpose of this study, student engagement is understood as how and to what extent students participate in educationally purposeful activities. Student engagement can take place at various levels (e.g., individual student level, subject level, course level, school level, institutional level). At the subject level, such a position assumes that curriculum design and delivery should incorporate key elements of student engagement such as academic challenge, active learning, interaction with tutors and rich educational experiences.
This paper reports Design students’ perceptions of student engagement at a Singaporean polytechnic, with regard to course work in general and a Communication Skills module in particular. While the Communication Skills module had been designed with student engagement in mind, and students were observed to be actively engaged in meeting the module’s learning outcomes, data from the students’ perpectives had yet to be derived. Students were queried electronically by means of a questionnaire. The findings provided greater insight into the ways students viewed student engagement and their experience of it, and would facilitate in further enhancing curriculum design and teaching strategies.

Keywords:

Student Engagement, Communication Skills Pedagogy, Singaporean Polytechnic.