Student engagement may be compromised by students identifying as consumers of their higher education, for example, by believing that their university owes them a degree because they have paid tuition fees. This type of attitude may conflict with a student’s learner identity, which is associated with intrinsic motivation for learning and an inherent interest in studying. This chapter will present some research on the strength of students’ identities as learners and consumers, and the association between these identities and various factors that affect student engagement. The findings suggest that a strong consumer identity is a barrier for engagement, particularly when it is accompanied by a weak learner identity. To increase student engagement, we present a teaching aid (www.brookes.ac.uk/SIIP) that enables students to assess and reflect on the strength of their learner and consumer identities, and develop stronger learner identities.
Taylor Bunce, Louise Rathbone, Clare King, Naomi
Department of Psychology, Health and Professional Development
Year of publication: 2023Date of RADAR deposit: 2022-07-06
All rights reserved. "This is the accepted manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Advancing Student Engagement in Higher Education: Reflection, Critique and Challenge on 12 May 2023, available online at the link here."