How Sandra Sülzenbrück creates belonging in the lecture hall
Back in 2009, she was a post-doc. Shy by nature and more comfortable running experiments in a small office, teaching felt like an obligation. Something necessary for her career.
Then she taught her first course in research methods. “I was hooked,” she says. “From this day on, I knew this was something that I really wanted to advance. Teaching actually became more of an interest than the research itself.”
Today, Sandra teaches business psychology at Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, covering statistics, empirical research methods, neuropsychology, communication, and coaching. But when she talks about her work, she rarely starts with the curriculum. She starts with purpose.
“I can’t imagine anything much more purposeful than being a teacher. Especially at the moment when we live in a world with fake news. Being a small part of just fighting against that feels so important,” she adds.
Why engagement matters more than ever
For Sandra, teaching is not about delivering information. It is about shaping how people think and how they see themselves in the learning process. That is why she’s passionate about building a sense of belonging in her classroom.
“From a psychological point of view, a student feeling a sense of belonging in the classroom is a basic condition for intrinsic motivation and increased ability to learn,” Sandra explains.
If students feel that they belong in the room, they are more willing to engage, ask questions, and take intellectual risks. And that is when real learning begins.
Sandra remembers what it felt like to sit in a large lecture hall herself.
“From my own experience, I know what it feels like to be in a room with 100 people and just not having the opportunity to ask a question.”
That memory shaped the kind of teacher she wanted to become, “I just want to do it differently.”
I can’t imagine anything much more purposeful than being a teacher.
Turning lectures into conversations
That desire to do things differently is what led her to Mentimeter. A colleague introduced her to the tool almost eight years ago. “I was hooked. I thought, wow, this is so great. It was for me just a new era of teaching.”
What resonated immediately was the anonymity. “A lot of times, students say, ‘Yeah, I have a stupid question.’ So this is the thing that I want to get rid of, because there are no stupid questions.”
By allowing students to respond through their phones, Sandra lowers the barrier to participation. She uses word clouds to open new topics, multiple choice questions to check prior knowledge, and quick quizzes to see if something has truly landed.
If the results show confusion, she does not push ahead.
“If they didn’t get it, I will explain it in a different way,” she says. “It’s a matter of mindset. You have not understood it yet.”
That small word, yet, carries weight.
When students say, “I can’t do math,” she reframes it. “You are not good at math yet.”
“Making mistakes hurts, but it’s necessary to learning.”
By turning presentations into conversations, Sandra keeps attention in the room and deepens knowledge at the same time. Students are not passive listeners. They are active participants in their own learning.
Listening as part of teaching
Engagement for Sandra is not only about asking questions. It is also about listening. At the end of every course, she gathers feedback. Even when it is not required.
“Feedback is crucial,” she says. “Everybody doing their job needs to know if they’re doing their job well or not.”
It can be uncomfortable. Critical comments linger. But she sees feedback as a way to uncover blind spots and improve.
She also shares anonymous reflections from previous cohorts, collected in Mentimeter, at the start of each new semester. Instead of hearing expectations only from her, students see honest advice from their peers, making it more credible and more human.
“You matter”
Beyond tools and techniques, Sandra’s philosophy is simple.
She tries to learn her students’ names. She reserves the last ten minutes of each lecture for smaller conversations. She invites questions and treats wrong answers as stepping stones, not failures.
“I still remember the professors who gave me this impression of ‘You matter, and I want to help you succeed.’ And I remember the others as well.”
That memory guides her.
In a system often focused on grades and performance, Sandra focuses on people. Students who are building confidence. Students who are forming their professional identity. Students who need encouragement as much as information.
“We should never forget that we are all humans and we need some kind of encouragement,” she says.
By leading with curiosity and creating space for every voice, Sandra turns lectures into conversations. And in doing so, she creates something even more powerful than engagement. She creates belonging.