Class participation points and postgraduate business students’ engagement: the case of a UK university

This article seeks to demonstrate how class participation points enhance students’ engagement in response to the increasing quest for pedagogic practices to enhance engagement. This investigation is based on a six-week field study of three tutorial classes of postgraduate business management students and six semi-structured interviews with two students from each tutorial class in a UK university. The findings suggest that class participation points are useful for enhancing student engagement. Additionally, the study uncovers the role of inclusive learning strategies and autonomous support in complementing class participation points for enhancing students’ behavioural, cognitive, and emotional engagement. In particular, while the methods of class participation points, inclusive learning strategies, and autonomous support facilitate students’ behavioural and cognitive engagement, a supportive climate is considered to enhance students’ emotional engagement. The study also identifies other relevant stakeholders who can work with lecturers to facilitate engagement rather than operating in silos.