5 Moments that Matter: when students tackle disengagement
Tai Peseta, Samuel Suresh, Shree Jobanputra, Chris Long, Eda Yuksel, Jana Beleska & Ishi Dixit, Western Sydney University
Many universities – not just ours – are wrestling with student disengagement. It’s a consequential topic, heavily researched, with a parade of practical solutions – better teachers, better students, better curriculum, better systems, better platforms, better data, better metrics, and better funding – all designed to keep universities informed of when, and how, students are engaging and progressing.
Across the world, we have a reasonably good sense of disengagement predictors: lack of preparation, lack of attendance, lack of early LMS (learning management system) engagement, lack of participation in class, and not handing in the first assignment. The reasons for their occurrence are complex, often interdependent, sometimes contradictory, and not entirely in the control of universities. Even so, there remains an important job for us all to do collectively to ensure that the students we accept into our programs are empowered to succeed, especially as the recommendations of the Universities Accord that position “students at the centre” (p 151) make their way into our institutional practices, routines and rhythms. In the Western Sydney communities we inhabit, there is a resolute commitment to student success. It’s baked into our identity as an anchor institution for our region.
Recently, our university committed significant resources to support teachers and educators address student disengagement. This transformation initiative was called the Engaged Teaching Project (ETP). While it aims to tackle several dimensions of ‘engagement’, the aspect that our team – the WSU Student Partners – has been grappling with, alongside staff, is the basic classroom experience.
What’s happening in our university classrooms? What does it feel like trying to learn now – amid post-pandemic anxiety, sky-rocketing cost of living, an unprecedented GenAI revolution, climate catastrophe, calls to decolonise, and continual angst about the influence of social media? University teaching, learning and education – in whatever mode: face to face, online, hyflex, or hybrid etc – just seems to feel far more uneasy.
As student partners, we’ve noticed it too. It’s relatively easy to succeed by being transactional and outsourcing your judgement as a student. It’s much harder to keep choosing engagement, to show up with the intention to actively participate and learn, and to be a generous colleague to our peers, including our teachers.
Earlier this year, the ETP gave us the chance to put our minds to what that same classroom might feel like for our teachers. They told us it’s a classroom where students don’t read, are reluctant to engage, where their Zoom screens remain black, and yet seem to demand endless flexibility. We recognise those classrooms. We’re in them too. Yet it goes without saying that it feels awkward for us as students to be invited to see the classroom from the teacher’s view because we’re trained to understand ourselves as receiving education, rather than shaping or co-creating it. And then, there’s that thing called ‘Power’. But we seem able to get closer to teachers’ perspectives in our capacity as student partners because we are enabled to work alongside them in a form of partnership that puts us in each other’s shoes.
We devised the 5 Moments that Matter as a chance to have a frank conversation with teachers and educators in our university community about the conditions that support students to choose engagement. They’re five messages we want all teachers to consider – across the entire academic spectrum – on their own, together, in meetings, and as part of their professional learning. It’s the conversation we really want to have with our teachers; but it’s one that’s hard to have with them, even though it’s needed now more than ever.
Moment 1: Start with Inspiration
As Shree explains: Starting the semester with inspiration rather than a checklist of rules can make a huge difference. When educators take the time to connect personally with their students and share their own stories, it creates a learning environment that is both exciting and meaningful. Watch more.
Moment 2: Support Students to ‘Own their Learning’
As Chris expresses: ‘Owning your Learning’ is an invitation to students that you can choose to bring your best self to learning at university despite imperfect circumstances. For me, it’s a decision to be engaged, to get curious, and to be supported by a community of people who are on a similar journey as me. Watch more.
Moment 3: Bring the Learning to Life
As Eda reflects: It isn’t just about making the classroom more fun for us – it’s about turning it into a space where real engagement happens. It’s about seeing us as more than just students and making the classroom a place where teaching and learning is exciting for everyone involved. As you get to know us, involve us in the learning process, and encourage our curiosity. That’s something we’ll carry with us long after we leave your class. Watch more.
Moment 4: Demystify Assessment
As Jana reminds us: When assessments are purposeful, interconnected and creatively freeing, they transform from sources of stress to opportunities for growth, discovery, and meaningful engagement. Watch more.
Moment 5: End with Reflection
As Ishi emphasises: There’s something peculiar about the way semesters often end. After the frenzy of assessments, deadlines, and exams, many subjects simply fade out. We move on to the next challenge without pausing to think about the journey we’ve just completed. This is one of the most underutilised opportunities in our learning process. Reflection is not just a nice-to-have; it’s an essential part of the learning process. Don’t let it fizzle out. Help us to make it do something useful. Watch more.
Anyone with a keen eye on the research in higher education will be unsurprised by these 5 Moments that Matter. They echo the work of scholars such as Paul Ramsden, Rachel Brooks & Sarah O’Shea, Stephen Brookfield, Jan McArthur, Lee S. Shulman, Brenda Leibowitz, and so many others who’ve been writing passionately about teaching, student learning, and engagement – in different ways, with different lenses – for at least the last 40 years.
That a group of Student Partners can summarise these messages so succinctly – when supported to do so – is a reminder that there is agreement about what engagement looks like when teachers’ and students’ educational interests are aligned. Ours is not a call for individual teachers to be super-human; teachers can’t fix disengagement on their own. But perhaps it is a reminder that many students in our classrooms – not all – give us clues that can fine-tune our pedagogical judgements. Taken together, these 5 Moments work best as a set of conversation starters we can collectively prod at (and along!).
Tai Peseta, Academic Lead, Student-Staff Partnership, Educational Partnerships & Quality, WSU
Samuel Suresh, Coordinating Lead, Student-Staff Partnership, WSU Student Partner team
Shree Jobanputra,Chris Long, Eda Yuksel, Jana Beleska & Ishi Dixit are all Student Partners, WSU Student Partner team
Educational Partnerships & Quality, Division of Education, Western Sydney University