Students experiences of teaching at secondary school and university: sharing responsibility for classroom engagement.

Recently much research has focused on student engagement, both at school
and at university. This attention is motivated by the role that engagement
plays in student learning and in the student experience. Acknowledging
that student engagement is a multifaceted construct we focus on the
contribution that teaching and teacher traits make to the quality of student
engagement, from the student’s perspective. In this small scale study, we
adopt a qualitative methodology to investigate students’ perceptions
of what factors impact on their engagement and what role the students
themselves have in fostering such engagement. Focus group and one-toone interviews with students in the last year of school and at university
were analysed to reveal four overarching themes related to engagement
in classroom life including the importance of active listening on the part of
both students and teachers. The resulting Refined Quality Teaching Initiatives
Framework outlines how dual engagement and active listening can be viable
pedagogical strategies both at school and university. The framework also
brings to the fore the active role and responsibilities that students have, in
their own perceptions, for engagement in the classroom. We conclude with
a reflection on the implications of our findings for teaching and teacher
training.