Over time, higher education has increasingly shifted from traditional lecture-based instruction toward more student-centered learning environments (Levesque-Bristol, 2021; Baeten & Simons, 2022). Despite this shift, there is still limited research examining the specific instructional strategies teachers use and how these approaches influence student engagement during class. Both teachers and students play critical roles in shaping the relationships that support an effective learning environment (Gehlbach et al., 2023). This study examines that relationship by exploring how students engage with course material, interact with instructors, and participate in classroom activities.

In response to calls for more engaging teaching practices, many educators have adopted alternative instructional methods that actively involve students in the learning process, with active learning being one of the most prominent. Active learning broadly refers to instructional approaches that involve structured activities designed to promote higher-order thinking, student participation, and interaction, rather than passive listening (Doolittle et al., 2023). This study focuses on two biology courses that incorporate active learning, specifically through presentation-based learning activities selected according to instructors’ teaching preferences, to examine how these approaches influence student engagement.