LECTURERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND THEIR ROLE IN SUPPORTING IT

A positive relationship between emotional engagement and teaching support was reported in a previous quantitative study on students’ perceptions of student engagement in four introductory lecture-based courses at four different German universities. The present qualitative research was designed to collect data from the four German male lecturers who participated in the previous study to explore their perceptions of student engagement and their role in supporting it. The lecturers of varying degrees of experience were observed while lecturing and subsequently interviewed to analyze their motivating teaching behavior. The analysis highlighted that lecturers (1) positioned themselves as committed professionals with a sense of ownership, (2) attributed positioning to students as social scientists, and (3) communicated messages characterized by supporting autonomous motivation. The lecturers implemented motivation strategies to engage their students who exhibited a preference for intentional silence. Certain characteristics of the students attending introductory level courses in Germany, such as having gained self-regulation skills at upper secondary school, highlight the importance of establishing specific goals before attending higher education courses. Article visualizations