Student engagement (SE) is a significant priority for HEIs across the globe, one which is perceived as reflecting education quality as well as influencing outcomes such as ‘student success, retention [and] learning outcomes’ (Shomotova and Ibrahim, 2025, p.1206). Existing studies reveal a ‘paucity of research on the position of academics […] on how they could enhance student engagement' in HE (Owusu-Agyeman, 2022, p.661). As such, our paper makes an exploratory contribution by investigating classroom practice designed to stimulate SE at an operational level.
Empirically, our paper reports on a small, institutionally-approved qualitative study of activities/strategies that were identified by academics (n=19) as ‘engaging’ for students across the degree portfolio (both home and international) when in the university classroom. With taught representation from all levels of study in a School of Education, participants from a research-intensive university in South West England took part in a small group activity during a School training session on SE, generating original documents (n=152) in the form of individual paper ‘strategy squares’.
Richly informed by BERA (2024), retrospective consent was sought to rigorously analyse the documents using thematic analysis (Naeem et al., 2023). Thoughtful reflections in our paper follow an illustrative presentation of four main themes.
Collectively, the research reveals fresh insight into the variety of dynamic pedagogical strategies (Dominguez, 2024) utilised in the School. Despite the limited scope and generalisability of the findings, the data analysis recognises SE to be a complex and multi-dimensional construct, prompting critical questions regarding the depth and quality of such engagement. Our paper concludes by acknowledging the influence of cultural background on students’ receptivity to different pedagogical approaches, as well as the role of instructor–student relationships in shaping supportive and effective learning environments. Given the localised nature of the sample and the exploratory design, we appreciate that our conclusions should be interpreted with appropriate caution.
