student engagement – Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching

Currently reading Eddy et al. (2015) on “Caution, student experience may vary: Social identities impact a student’s experience in peer discussions”

mglessmer — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 17:52:02 +0000

I am still on the “tyranny of participation” trip, this time reading about students’ experiences in peer discussions and inequities in roles that students take on in those discussions. Generally, we assume that students learn through peer discussions, but we also know that not all students learn equally in that format. What are the barriers […]

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Currently reading Bjork & Bjork (2011) on “Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning”

mglessmer — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 09:34:02 +0000

This is one of these texts that I wish I had known earlier: to give to students to help them understand their learning, but also to teachers as a super easy introduction to how to think about difficulties in learning: “Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance […]

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Even more reading on student engagement (Vallee, 2017; Dangeni, 2025; Padilla-Petry et al., 2022)

mglessmer — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 19:28:50 +0000

Ok, now I am hooked on student engagement and what it really means, or, more importantly, should mean! So here are quick summaries of three more articles that I read to make sense of the “tyranny“. First, Vallee (2017) on “Student engagement and inclusive education: reframing student engagement” According to this article, engagement clasically describes […]

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More on the tyranny of participation (Macfarlane & Tomlinson, 2017; Mendes & Hammett, 2023; Dyment et al., 2020)

mglessmer — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 15:17:35 +0000

After reading about the “tyranny of participation” the other day, I looked into some more literature citing Gourlay (2015) to possibly get some ideas of how to encourage cognitive engagement without assuming what that would look like from the outside. First up: Macfarlane & Tomlinson (2017) on “Critiques of student engagement“. They have six main […]

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Currently reading Gourlay (2015) on “‘Student engagement’ and the tyranny of participation”

mglessmer — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 08:28:21 +0000

Very intrigued by that title, especially since I just wrote about student engagement as something positive, that all universities claim to want! Gourlay (2015) describes that traditionally, student engagement is described as behavioural, emotional, and cognitive engagement with a learning situation (and possibly beyond), other people in the context, and the content — often set […]

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Currently reading Loughlin (2025) on “Building higher education: the tension between espoused educational values and physical infrastructure”

mglessmer — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 07:13:25 +0000

Why is it that even though most people agree (and most university policies state) that active student engagement is desirable, there are still large lecture theatres being built? Loughlin (2025) explores the “theory of action”, which distinguishes between what people or organisations say they do (for example in mission statements or policies; “espoused theory”) and […]

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“The construction of meaning through vital engagement” (Nakamura & Csikzentmihalyi, 2003)

mglessmer — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 07:56:46 +0000

My awesome colleague and critical friend Peter sent me an article on “vital engagement”, which he has been talking about for a while and which I can very much relate to. It is about how some people find joy and meaning in almost everything they do, whereas for others, the experience of life in general […]

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Just published: Co-Creating Learning in Oceanography

mglessmer — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 16:46:10 +0000

Kjersti and I just had an article published: “Co-Creating Learning in Oceanography” (Glessmer & Daae, 2021)! In this article, we discuss ways in which to share responsibility for learning between teachers and students on a continuum from “just” actively engaging students towards fully shared responsibility, i.e. “co-creation” or “Students as Partners”. We give 13 different […]

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Students as partners as a threshold concept for students and teachers?

mglessmer — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 15:04:52 +0000

One of my goals as a teacher is to change culture towards responsibility for student learning being shared equally between teachers and students. This is an idea that is met with some resistance, both from students who need to put in more work, and from teachers. An article by Cook-Sather (2014) sheds light on difficulties […]

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student engagement – Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching

Currently reading Eddy et al. (2015) on “Caution, student experience may vary: Social identities impact a student’s experience in peer discussions”

Currently reading Bjork & Bjork (2011) on “Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning”

Even more reading on student engagement (Vallee, 2017; Dangeni, 2025; Padilla-Petry et al., 2022)

More on the tyranny of participation (Macfarlane & Tomlinson, 2017; Mendes & Hammett, 2023; Dyment et al., 2020)

Currently reading Gourlay (2015) on “‘Student engagement’ and the tyranny of participation”

Currently reading Loughlin (2025) on “Building higher education: the tension between espoused educational values and physical infrastructure”

“The construction of meaning through vital engagement” (Nakamura & Csikzentmihalyi, 2003)

Recommended reading: “Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity” (Tanner, 2013)

Just published: Co-Creating Learning in Oceanography

Students as partners as a threshold concept for students and teachers?