A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

64 ❘
Teaching, supervising, learning
Student engagement
There can be nothing more demotivating for students than sitting in a lecture where the
lecturer is monotone, the PowerPoint presentation is a predictable list of bullet points
and at no point do they feel part of the lecture. Student engagement allows them to feel
involved. Lecturers should, through the techniques they employ, acknowledge that the
lecture is for the students and that they are there to help them to learn.
There are different types and levels of student engagement. First, there is the simple
acknowledgement of the students themselves. Build a rapport with the student group by
communicating directly with some of the students. For example, chat to students as you
are waiting to get started. Make sure students know how to contact you after the lecture
if there are things they do not understand. Be approachable and friendly.
Second, some of the techniques mentioned thus far in this chapter will elicit student
engagement by the very fact that the lecture is interesting, enthusiastically delivered and
well organised. Attention span can be a particular problem in the lecture, particularly
with a didactic delivery style. It is often suggested that students can only concentrate for
about 20 minutes as passive learners in a lecture (Stuart and Rutherford, 1978) and that
breaking the flow or changing actvity will help them overcome this problem.
The third and probably the most important aspect of student engagement is their active
participation in the lecture. The following suggestions are examples of the ways in which
this can be achieved in large lecture classes, as illustrated in the case studies.
• Pose questions for students to discuss in small groups, then take feedback from a few
groups to hear what they think.
• Get the students to tackle problems individually, and then compare their answers
with one or two others sitting next to them. You do not always need to elicit feedback.
• Ask the students to vote on a multiple choice question (MCQ) (see Chapter 26 for an
example). Use a show of hands to check the responses, or use an electronic voting
system. Wherever possible, the incorrect answers you offer should be derived from
common mistakes that students make, and if they are chosen you can use the
opportunity to talk the mistakes through with them.
• Show a DVD clip, but do ask the students to look for something specific that you can
ask them about afterwards.
• Use demonstrations that can involve the students directly.
• Ask the students to do a mini-test, for example, to check student progress. This will
need to be marked and could be based on an MCQ format.