Engagement ‘with’ or ‘by’ students: two sides of the same coin

1. Introduction With two of us having over 30 years’ experience of teaching mathematics, one in higher education, one in both higher and secondary education, and the other with over 10 years’ experience of teaching statistics in higher education, we have seen a sea change in student attitudes to post-16 education in terms of approaches to study and their willingness to engage, and not all for the better. With ‘student engagement’ seemingly always very high on the agenda for educational institutions, it is a surprise that there remains confusion about what this term really means [1, 2]. Duah & Croft [2] suggested the following for mathematics The time, energy and resources that students devote to the study of mathematics and active participation in mathematics related enrichment activities as well as the extent to which students interact with the extra-curricular activities provided by their institution and aimed at inculturation of students into the community of practising mathematicians which seems perfectly reasonable to us. However, we’re aware that this may not be the interpretation that others have in mind when setting policies.