Voices, grins and laughter in the lecture room

This paper investigates the listening behaviors of students in a university lecture hall for cues of ‘active listening’ and/or cognitive/emotional engagement. Claims that the lecture format intrinsically lacks opportunities for learning since there is no (verbal) student response are examined on the basis of video data of a lecture on the first day of term in a large lecture theater seating 300+ students. We show evidence of the intricate coordination and synchronization of individual and multi-listener responses with emerging units of the lecture-in-progress and conclude that there is no research-based ground to support the aforementioned claim. Laughter, whisper voices, grins, and prosodic cues are part of the data that should be addressed to advance our understanding of complex participation modes in formal institutional settings.