Stories from the Feedback Frontier

Reflective Tales Unpacking the Elusive Link between Articulated Response and Deep Engagement

Authors

  • Wei Lun Wong University Kebangsaan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59207/tap-tu.v3i.287

Abstract

I began my appointment as a senior lecturer in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) at a Malaysian public university, buoyed by a decade of primary school teaching experience. In my former classroom, pupils’ readiness to raise hands, volunteer answers, or laugh during language games functioned as a dependable barometer of engagement. Consequently, when my undergraduates appeared silent, and heads bowed over iPads while I lectured, I defaulted to the assumption that they were passive. My remedies were familiar, such as rapid-fire questions, pop quizzes, and collaborative presentations designed to require them to speak.

References

Alexander, R. (2020). A dialogic teaching companion. Routledge.

Borup, J., Graham, C. R., West, R. E., Archambault, L., & Spring, K. J. (2020). Academic communities of engagement: An expansive lens for examining support structures in blended and online learning. Educational Technology Research and Development, 68(2), 807-832.

Dewaele, J. M., Guedat‐Bittighoffer, D., & Dat, M. A. (2025). Foreign language enjoyment overcomes anxiety and boredom to boost oral proficiency in the first year of English foreign language learning. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 35(1), 152-167.

Dixson, M. D. (2015). Measuring student engagement in the online course: The Online Student Engagement scale (OSE). Online Learning, 19(4), 1 - 15.

Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P. C., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59 – 109.

Haensel, J. X., Smith, T. J., & Senju, A. (2022). Cultural differences in mutual gaze during face-to-face interactions: A dual head-mounted eye-tracking study. Visual Cognition, 30(1-2), 100 - 115.

Licorish, S. A., Owen, H. E., Daniel, B., & George, J. L. (2018). Students’ perception of Kahoot!’s influence on teaching and learning. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 13(1), 1 - 23.

Reeve, J., Basarkod, G., Jang, H. R., Gargurevich, R., Jang, H., & Cheon, S. H. (2025). Specialized purpose of each type of student engagement: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 37(1), 13.

Richardson, J. C., Maeda, Y., Lv, J., & Caskurlu, S. (2017). Social presence in relation to students' satisfaction and learning in the online environment: A meta- analysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 71, 402 - 417.

Takayama, K., & Lee, Y. (2024). Doing Asia as method: Collective meandering toward “East Asian” subjectivities in educational research. ECNU Review of Education, 7(3), 465 - 489.

Tanner, K. D. (2012). Promoting student metacognition. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 11(2), 113 - 120.

Downloads

Additional Files

Published

2026-05-26