86 Chapter 4 RESULTS Three study groups were invited to participate. Two study groups agreed and fifteen individual interviews were conducted. Four students agreed to the video recording, but declined an interview. We will first report on the relationship between the dimensions of engagement (RQ1), then on the influence of antecedents on in-class student engagement (RQ2), and finally on the difficulty for tutors in engaging students (RQ3). Relationships between dimensions of engagement: Spirals of engagement Students reported to engage and disengage multiple times during a meeting. Students engaged for a variety of reasons, mainly out of interest for a topic or having prior knowledge that could add to a discussion. Students also tended to engage when their tutor or peers demanded it. Interestingly, we identified a pattern in the interviews that once a student engaged on one dimension, other dimensions were likely to follow. In other words, engagement seemed to build upon itself, creating a ‘spiral-like pattern of engagement’. The following quote illustrates this finding: [Interviewer and Student watching a part of the video recording in which the student was asked to read a patient case aloud and answer a question about it] Interviewer: How do you feel about being asked to answer that question? Student: I don’t mind that. I notice I am touching my face a lot. When I am thinking about something… like at an exam, I always touch my hair and I look down, but apparently, I also do it when I am thinking in the group. Interviewer: So you were really thinking here? Student: Yes, I was really thinking here. And of course, when someone else says something then I am listening and thinking ‘yeah that’s true’. […] Interviewer: How did you feel about other people also answering here, while you were still thinking? Student: I liked that. Because if you don’t know the answer, and nobody says anything, we would not get anywhere. You would say ‘I don’t know’ and then someone else would get a turn or someone else would say something eventually. […] Interviewer: So you are okay with people jumping in when they do know? Student: Yes, otherwise I would look like a fool for creating a silence, wouldn’t I? (Student 5) In this quote, a prompt for verbal participation (reading the patient case out loud – behavioral engagement), started a cognitive process in which the student would think about the question and the answers from his peers (cognitive engagement), and elicited positive feelings about the group (helping him and avoiding negative feelings about himself – emotional engagement). In another interview, a student reported how she had strong feelings about a certain topic (emotional engagement), and how this led her to be more verbally active during the case discussion (behavioral engagement), and also more attentive to hear others’ point of view (cognitive engagement). Other interviews demonstrated this
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