Interaction of initiating prompts and the patterns of student engagement in higher education biology classrooms

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Authors

Khoza, Hlologelo Climant
Makgata, Thato I.

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Octagon Education Services

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the interactions of prompts used to initiate engagement and the resulting student engagement using video-data from one biology lecturer in a semester-long module. This study was informed by the socio-cultural perspectives on learning. The transcripts from video data were divided into interactive episodes. In these episodes, we looked for how the prompts (classified as verbal and non-verbal) interacted to bring student engagement. Findings indicate that the prompts interacted in a variety of ways. Findings indicate that the use of verbal prompts like questions resulted in minimal student engagement. Student engagement was heightened when the lecturer initiated whole-class discussion using both verbal prompts as well as non-verbal prompts in an interactive manner. We discuss the significance of these findings and argue how our approach to looking at student engagement helped us to unpack these succinct findings.

Description

Keywords

Verbal and non-verbal prompts, Student engagement, Biology, Classroom discourse, SDG-04: Quality education, SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG-04:Quality Education
SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Citation

Khoza, H. C. & Makgata, T. I. (2024). Interaction of initiating prompts and the patterns of student engagement in higher education biology classrooms. Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology, 6(2), 64-77. https://doi.org/10.33902/jpsp.202426566.