Reflections from Fatimah Alsharif’s Teaching Artistry workshop on engaging learners

When we talk about learner engagement, the conversation often turns quickly to activities: games, pair work, group work, technology or new ways of presenting language. These can certainly help. But Fatimah Alsharif’s recent workshop, Engaging Students in the English Classroom: Practical Strategies for Teachers, pointed towards something deeper.

Engagement is not simply about what activity a teacher chooses. It is also about how it feels to be a learner in that classroom.

Do I feel safe enough to speak?
Will I be given enough time to find the words?
What happens if I make a mistake?
Does the teacher notice me?
Do I feel that what I am being asked to do is achievable?
Am I genuinely participating, or merely watching the teacher teach?

These questions take us to the heart of Teaching Artistry.

When disengagement is not a motivation problem

At the beginning of the workshop, participants identified many reasons learners may withdraw: fear of making mistakes, boring or inappropriate topics, excessive teacher talk, lack of understanding, low motivation and teacher-centred lessons. Fatimah grouped these broadly into language-related, emotional and classroom-related factors.

This is an important shift in perspective.

A quiet learner is not necessarily an unmotivated learner. A student who refuses to answer may be protecting themselves from embarrassment. Another may have stopped participating because tasks repeatedly feel beyond their reach. Others may simply have learned that the safest role in the classroom is to remain invisible.

One participant described students who spoke confidently in one-to-one lessons but became silent in groups because they feared being judged or teased by classmates.

Engagement, then, is partly relational. Before asking, How can I make this activity more exciting?, we might ask:

What is happening in the emotional space of this classroom?

The classroom as an emotional environment

One of Fatimah’s strongest messages was the importance of creating a classroom in which mistakes are accepted. She reminded participants that teachers make mistakes too and argued that learners need to know that imperfection is a normal part of learning.

This may sound obvious, but learners do not discover that a classroom is safe because we tell them it is safe. They discover it through repeated experience.

They notice our face when an answer is wrong.

They notice whether we interrupt.

They notice how long we wait.

They notice whether another learner is allowed to dominate.

They notice whether their partial answer is treated as a contribution or a failure.

These are small, often unconscious, performative signals. Together they communicate who is entitled to speak and what happens when someone takes a risk.

Teaching artistry therefore involves more than knowing techniques for error correction. It includes an awareness of the emotional meaning of our behaviour.

A pause can communicate patience.

A smile can communicate encouragement.

Moving too quickly to another learner can communicate: Your answer wasn’t good enough.

The moment that matters

Fatimah illustrated this through a simple classroom case.

A teacher explains the present simple at length and then asks Ali what he usually does after school. Ali looks down, hesitates and eventually gives a short but essentially successful answer. Rather than developing his contribution, the teacher turns to another student. Later, when students are invited to volunteer answers, Ali remains silent.

The workshop participants immediately recognised the significance of this moment.

Ali had spoken.

He had taken a risk.

The teacher had an opportunity to acknowledge that success, perhaps responding positively and asking a small follow-up question. Instead, the interaction moved on. Participants suggested that Ali could easily interpret the comparison with the stronger learner as evidence that his contribution had failed.

This is a useful example of what we might call a micro-moment of teaching artistry.

Nothing dramatic happens. There is no major methodological error. But a few seconds of classroom interaction may influence whether a learner chooses to participate the next time.

Skilled teaching therefore requires more than planning what comes next. It requires noticing what is happening now.

From performing teaching to facilitating learning

Another recurring theme was teacher talk.

Fatimah openly reflected on moments when she finds herself explaining for too long and then realises that her students have become passive listeners. Participants similarly argued that pair work, group work and discussion can transform learners from an audience into participants.

But simply putting students into groups does not automatically create engagement.

Participants pointed out that stronger learners may take over, quieter learners may disappear, and groups may drift away from the task. The teacher’s role therefore becomes one of facilitation: establishing clear purposes, monitoring participation, varying groups and creating structures in which everybody has a meaningful role.

This is central to Teaching Artistry.

The teacher does not disappear. Rather, teacher presence changes.

Instead of occupying the centre of every interaction, we create conditions in which learners can occupy more of the space themselves.

The artistry lies in knowing when to lead, when to step back, when to intervene and when to allow an interaction to develop.

Engagement has a body

One participant introduced another important dimension: movement.

She described how even adult conference participants became more energised when they were asked to stand, stretch, change partners or move around the room. She connected this experience to classroom practices such as changing groups, posting ideas on different walls and physically moving between activities.

This reminds us that learners do not enter our classrooms as disembodied brains.

Attention is physical.

Energy is physical.

Interaction is physical.

A classroom in which learners remain seated, facing forward and listening for long periods communicates a particular role: spectator.

Changing the physical pattern of a lesson can change the social pattern as well.

Turning towards another learner changes who owns the conversation. Standing up can change energy. Moving to another part of the room can mark a transition. Rearranging groups can interrupt established hierarchies.

Embodied teaching does not require theatrical activities. Sometimes a small change in positioning is enough to change how participation feels.

The power of achievable success

Fatimah also emphasised small, achievable goals.

If learners repeatedly experience tasks as too difficult, withdrawal becomes understandable. But when a learner thinks, I can do this, participation becomes less threatening. Fatimah argued that this experience of success helps learners move forward and continue engaging.

This suggests another important principle:

Confidence often follows participation rather than preceding it.

We sometimes wait for hesitant learners to become confident enough to speak. Teaching artistry asks a different question:

How can I design the next interaction so that speaking feels possible?

Perhaps the learner first rehearses with a partner.

Perhaps we provide a sentence starter.

Perhaps everyone thinks before anyone answers.

Perhaps the first question requires only three words rather than three sentences.

Perhaps we acknowledge the contribution before focusing on accuracy.

Small successes accumulate.

And through them, learners begin to construct a new identity: I am someone who can participate here.

Engagement as invitation

Perhaps the most useful way to think about engagement is not as something teachers produce in learners, but as something we continually invite.

Our activity design invites participation.

Our movement and positioning invite interaction.

Our responses to mistakes invite experimentation—or caution.

Our facial expression, voice, timing and attention tell learners whether their contribution is genuinely welcome.

This is where engagement becomes part of Teaching Artistry.

The skilful teacher is not simply trying to keep students busy. They are continually reading the room, responding to learners and adjusting the conditions for participation.

Sometimes that means introducing movement.

Sometimes it means talking less.

Sometimes it means changing the task.

And sometimes it means something as small as staying with a hesitant learner for five more seconds and communicating:

I heard you. Your contribution matters. Keep going.

That may be one of the most powerful engagement strategies we have.