Dr Ahmed Elbediwy, a senior lecturer at Kingston University who constantly looks to improve teaching methodology and support, focuses on how important lecturing can be for student engagement.
There is common misconception that lecturing happens one way: an academic delivers the material from the front of the lecture theatre, and students listen and slowly absorb knowledge like a sponge. But the best lecturers don’t just deliver a lecture; they perform it, with passion and enthusiasm. They turn their lecture into a live experience akin to a theatre performance where students aren’t just spectators but participants of the experience. Engaging lecturing isn’t about being flashy or over the top. It’s about being intentional, interactive and importantly, impossible to ignore. Let’s raise the curtain.
Start with a hook
Every great performer knows the opening line sets the tone for the rest of the performance. In lecturing, that hook can be:
- A provocative question: something that makes the room active and students want to comment.
- A surprising statistic: a did-you-know type of fact which surprises everyone.
- A short story that humanises the topic: maybe a personal experience which students can relate to.
- A quick demonstration: visualising a topic in real time.
- A puzzle students can’t resist solving: a simple crossword of key words from lecture, for example.
- Provide some modelling clay or guidance of a drawing: allows the inner child to be released and retain the point of the lecture.
The goal of the hook is simple: as lecturers we want to create cognitive tension, a moment where students go “wait, what?” it’s that moment which prepares the brain for learning in the lecture and absorbing the material (Brewer 2024). The next step is now delivering the material.
Turn your lecture into a dialogue, not a monologue
The notion of active learning isn’t just a trend or a fancy word; it is the backbone of knowledge retention. Students learn more when they do something with the material rather than just listen.
High impact and engaging lecturing techniques work best when it feels natural rather than forced. Strategies such as Think‑Pair‑Share allows passive student listeners into active thinkers by giving students time to reflect individually, time to discuss with a peer, and then share insights with the room. This approach gives students the platform for their opinions (Mundelsee and Jurkowski 2021).
Another method is engaging with students in mini debates. These add energy to any lecture theatre and sharpen reasoning by letting students explore opposing sides of an issue in a respectful, yet structured way. Using interactive tools is also very important, a tool such as Mentimeter offers instant and anonymous feedback for both academics and students giving students confidence to engage (Sandhu 2012).
Academic delivery: don’t underestimate the importance of this
An academics’ mode of delivery matters just as much as the activities embedded into a teaching session. Using your voice like an instrument by changing and varying pace, volume and pauses, keeps student attention high and helps retain key ideas and theory.
An academics’ movement across a lecture room also plays a large role in student engagement; you don’t need to pace constantly, but stepping forward for emphasis, shifting position to reset attention, walking towards students who answer questions, or using gestures to illustrate contrasts can turn your body into a powerful visual aid and prevents monotonous delivery.
Crucially, engagement rises dramatically when students feel like co-stars rather than background extras in a lecture. Inviting participation through kind cold‑calling, encouraging student‑generated examples, incorporating role‑playing and using peer instruction all help students take ownership of their learning.
Learning student names is also essential as this makes students feel valued, seen and enhances a student’s sense of belonging.
Finally, structuring your lecture in short, purposeful segments, in other words teach key concepts, let students apply it, debrief, then move on, keeps cognitive load manageable and maintains a dynamic rhythm that supports sustained attention. Remember, attention span has decreased significantly over the past few decades because of digital technology, so having short bitesize teaching chunks helps massively with engagement (Bradbury 2016; Shuwara et al 2025).
End with a finale that echoes after class
Once the lecture reaches its climax, the key point is to leave an impression – don’t fade out, finish strong. A powerful ending to a lecture might be using a real-world application, a question that lingers in a student’s mind for the rest of the week, a challenge or question for students to try to address before the next lecture, or even a taster for the next lecture that builds anticipation for the next session. Remember, great lecturers don’t just end a class; they leave a resonance and a lot of thought and unanswered questions.
Post-lecture engagement is also important
Once the lecture is finished, an academic’s role does not end there. Providing extra material on a student’s virtual learning environment such as videos, articles, recorded small chunk podcasts and even questions to think about, reinforces the positive experience that the lecturer gave in their teaching session and shows that the academic cares to try to engage the student post-session.
The secret to engaging lecturing: you’re not just delivering content, you’re directing an experience
For engaging lecturing, it is a combination of part-performance, part-pedagogy and part-partnership. It’s about crafting moments where students feel awake, excited, involved, intellectually alive and most importantly, wanting to learn more. And when you combine active learning with a bit of entertainer flair, something magical happens; students stop counting the minutes until the end and start chasing ideas while wanting more.
Dr Ahmed Elbediwy is an award-winning Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for BSc Biochemistry at Kingston University. With a passion for inclusive, student-centred teaching, he is also actively involved in several pedagogic projects for the betterment of student belonging and attainment.
Bibliography:
Bradbury, N. (2016). Attention span during lectures: 8 seconds, 10 minutes, or more? Advances in Physiology Education 40:4, 509-513.
Brewer, C. (2024). Engaging students via interactive lecture activities inspired by common classroom practice. MSOR Connections, 22(3), 39–50.
Lukas Mundelsee, Susanne Jurkowski. (2021) Think and pair before share: Effects of collaboration on students’ in-class participation, Learning and Individual Differences, Volume 88.
Sandhu S, Afifi TO, Amara FM (2012) Theories and Practical Steps for Delivering Effective Lectures. J Community Med Health Educ 2:158.
Shuwara, T., Malik, J., Kaur, M., Saint Amand, T., Johnson, D., Wehida, N., … Elbediwy, A. (2025). Do Teaching Methods Affect Student’s Attention Span, Engagement and Attainment?. New Directions in the Teaching of Natural Sciences, (20).
