Engage Them, Don’t Enrage Them – Student Voices and What It Takes to Participate

Abstract

Students who get involved reap several academic benefits (Furtwengler: 1991). This paper concerns features of pedagogy that involve students, get them to participate, and capture and sustain their interest. Analysis of data from feedback by 80 students and 40 faculty members in the United Arab Emirates University highlighted four core components in motivating student participation: the content connect-ability of subject-matter to students’ everyday lives; the use of student active-involvement opportunities in lessons; the students’ sharing of responsibility in the learning process; and the establishment of a rewarding system for effort and engagement.