Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
12th International Conference on Social Sciences, Amsterdam, Hollanda, 19 - 20 Mayıs 2017, ss.578
The aim of this study is to compare course engagement for vocational education students
who enrolled in the Cisco Networking Academy (CNA) courses and who took the network
courses from the standard vocational education curriculum in Turkey. The comparison group
was established in a way that students in both groups had very similar characteristics. The
data were collected using a survey throughout 2 separate school years. The participants are
2793 vocational education students (Cisco Group=1373, Non-Cisco Group=1420).
Engagement was measured with 7 constructs, which are active learning, collaborative
learning, interaction with instructor, student effort, feedback, satisfaction, and personal
development. The instruments were validated through a series of instrument validation
steps. First, the original items in the instruments were reviewed by a panel of experts, and
then a pilot test was conducted on high school students. A factor analysis was run to identify
items grouped under the same construct and unrelated items were removed from the
survey. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Independent Samples t
Tests after satisfying necessary assumptions. The results indicated that Cisco students in
both years of the study scored higher than non-Cisco students in all engagement constructs.
All differences were significant between Cisco and non-Cisco students. Comparing within
the student groups, Cisco students showed somewhat consistent picture in both years. With
the exception of active learning, collaboration, and satisfaction, all measured constructs
were in similar scores whereas non-Cisco students showed significant decreases on all
engagement constructs. What factors might be influential on engagement and
implementations are discussed.