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.
