Given the right environment, opportunities and support, all students have the potential to succeed

Abstract

This talk introduces delegates to teaching strategies that have worked to good effect in both face-to-face and online classrooms in optimising student engagement and engendering learner success. Through the sharing, I hope to encourage delegates from multiple disciplines and in different areas of higher education to think out of the box to explore creative and innovative ways of providing students with a motivating learning environment, equitable opportunities and the right support to discover their potentials and guide them in achieving what they are capable of. To some practitioners, engagement may be viewed as being synonymous with participation. However, I contend that the latter may only be an initial step towards fostering student engagement. At the talk, I discuss some of my established as well as evolving research-informed classroom practices that are acknowledged by students – both the challenged and the challenging – to have a positive impact on their learning. These students include ones who may be academically less inclined, experiencing communication anxiety for various reasons, displaying reticence, inhibited by personality factors and trying to overcome other hurdles. The strategies to be presented have been tried out and refined based on student feedback, enhanced amid the global COVID-19 pandemic as I deepen my understanding of the affordances of digital technology and learn to “re-tool” it for maximum effectiveness of the strategies employed (Tsui & Tavares, 2021). Characterised by the acronym E-N-G-A-G-E-M-E-N-T, these strategies have been developed to … • Ease students into the learning environment through creating a warm, comfortable and relaxing atmosphere that facilitates engagement; • inject Novelty, giving students a fresh experience that goes beyond the routine so as to arouse their curiosity towards what the next class has to bring; • promote Group dynamics which give every student a role to play, shared responsibilities in the collaboration and a clear purpose for in-class interaction; • enable All students to be included in the learning process; • Gamify learning so that students are stimulated to excel in unique ways; • create Equitable opportunities for students with diverse learning needs to experience success; • allow for Mutual dependence and reciprocity of learning to take place; • make Each student’s voice valued and choice respected in accordance with their preferred mode of learning; and • ensure No one is left out or left behind; through strategic re-tooling of Technology for optimal strategy use. Through showing delegates how these strategies come to live in the everyday physical and virtual classroom, I aspire to bring them some (re)new(ed) insights into possible teaching ideas that could be adapted for use in their own context and to empower them to continue to seek ways to heighten learner engagement, re-ignite the interest of the marginalised, support the challenged, embrace diversity as well as maximise chances of success for all in class.