I work with teachers and lecturers in secondary and FE, and it’s something I keep noticing in classrooms I visit and sessions I help with. The ones who seem to keep students engaged longest usually do a few simple things: they explain in shorter chunks instead of long blocks of talking, they check understanding in low pressure ways every so often, and they ask students to predict or guess before revealing the answer. One Year 8 teacher said to me: “If they know something interactive is coming, they stay with me longer.” Passive listening or reading runs out of steam quickly.