ENGAGING AND RETAINING LEARNERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION FAMILY AND COMSUMER SCIENCES DEGREE PROGRAMS

Abstract

Researchers have inspected the relationship between student engagement, achievement, and program retention in residential Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) programs, with the belief that greater engagement in these programs can improve retention and achievement scores. The study examined the relationship between student engagement and numerical grade scores between two groups of FACS students using the Perceptions of Student Engagement instrument. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance was performed to compare engagement scores with numerical grade scores between the two groups. The result of the MANOVA was statistically significant and the null hypothesis was rejected at a 95% confidence level where F(2, 164) = 11.68, p <.01, partial η² = .125. Suggestions for future research include repeating the study at other higher education FACS programs, between broader groups of residential classes, and examining the impact of instructional pedagogy methods on student engagement and achievement in residential learning.

Keywords: student engagement, student achievement, higher education, family and consumer sciences