Student engagement in the lecture theatre

22 September 2026

I remember being a student: going to lectures, sitting at the back and answering questions in my head, but never out loud. I also remember who sat in the front row: the super-keen, engaged and, in hindsight, wise students who were making the most of their university experience. I am now a lecturer on the other side of the lectern, and I wish more students would engage with me.

My scholarship project is about why they don't and what we as educators can do to change it.  Scholarship funding from the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences (SBBS) has enabled me to recruit students to take part in the research

Although my immediate interest is student engagement, what really fascinates me is student confidence, with engagement acting as a useful measure of it. I want to understand how we can help students develop confidence in their own abilities so they feel able to contribute, challenge ideas and advocate for themselves. These skills matter far beyond the lecture theatre. Graduates need to be able to communicate what they can do, share their ideas and make themselves heard if they are to progress in their careers. 

To explore this further, I partnered with a final-year Biomedical Sciences student to co-create a project investigating how students feel about speaking up in lectures. Together, we designed an online survey and conducted follow-up interviews with a smaller group of participants. Funding from SBBS meant that we were able to pay students for their time in this research project. 

We focused on second- and third-year Biomedical Sciences students, partly because they make up the majority of my teaching and partly because I have often wondered why so many highly intelligent students choose to stay silent. We explored not only how willing students were to engage, but also how often they actually did. We were interested in whether factors such as preparation, previous experiences, or student background influenced confidence, and how students felt when they got an answer wrong. 

What we found both confirmed my observations and challenged my assumptions. 

I was not surprised to find that many students rarely spoke up during lectures; around 80% told us they rarely or never contributed, which reflects what I see in the classroom. What did surprise me, however, was that more than three-quarters of students said they wanted to speak up and answer questions during lectures.

This suggests that the issue is not a lack of interest or willingness to engage, but something that prevents students from acting on that desire.

When we looked more closely, a clear theme emerged: students were often held back by low self-confidence and a fear of being judged or embarrassed in front of their peers. The data also highlighted the importance of psychological safety and the need to create learning environments where students feel comfortable taking risks, making mistakes and contributing to discussions. Smaller group activities and more supportive, inclusive teaching approaches may be part of the solution. 

This project is only the beginning. The next step is to explore whether students on other programmes share similar experiences and whether the barriers to engagement differ across disciplines. Ultimately, I hope this work will help us identify practical ways to build students’ confidence so that more of them feel able to find their voice, both in the classroom and beyond.

- Anna Harte 

Biomedical Sciences