Instruction should be varried to keep the student engaged. Short lecture of material with a combination of discussion, Q&A, and completion of exercises related to the current topic seems to keep the student engaged. I find this method also generated more class participation and questions.
As my courses are mostly lecture based, I found the strategy of completing an activity every 15 to 18 minutes most useful. It gives the students a "break" and allows them to participate in the class.
Samantha,
Games are big with most students. I use Family Feud and Jeopardy a lot during review time and the students really get into both.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I find that asking questions periodically or engaging in mini games to see who can answer the queustions.
Debra,
Great strategy to follow. This keeps the students engaged and focused on the content plus enables them to apply the content during the activities time.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
When I lecture I do it in mini spurts with activities in between to help stimulate the mind and wake it up. This helps my students from not getting bored.
Jamie,
Great strategy because we know learners start to drift off after about 20 minutes of straight lecture. So by offering hands on activities you are changing the pace and keeping your students focused.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
In classes I bring in hands on activities to incorporate every 20 min to change up the way the class is going. It gets everyone interacting instead of just zoning out in class.
Kurtis,
So true. As a result of differentiated instruction student engagement is going to be enhanced and learning increased.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Active engagement will be increased by developing lessons that can reach all styles of learners. Differentiated instruction is not only important to keeping the attention of the students but is a vital step of fostering a positive learning environment.
Jennifer,
This is why teachers often joke about Plan B. Plan A never seems to work for some reason or another and so it is off to Plan B, then something come up and before long you are on Plan M or N. The point is instructors need to have a variety of backup activities planned and ready to go when something occurs to throw the schedule off.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
this sounds like a very beneficial tactic to use. I also am learning myself as an Instructor. I have realized what works with class A doesnt always work with our class B.
Eurico,
Learning is a sequential process that requires that we keep the interest of the students through all of the class sessions. So we need to build excitement in our students as we close one class session and introduce the next one. Thanks for the good point on this.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Keeping students engaged is often a challenge faced daily. Especially if they are in one class for an extended period of time. The instructor should ask questions that require the students to critically think. Engage the student in learning activities provided by the resources you use (games, videos with pausing options for questions). Simply asking the students what they think so far about the material or how it relates to what they have seen or experienced in the field.
veriety veriety veriety keep it fresh and new come at different angles. Students get bored with same old same old.
Giving some new insight is relevant to the course topic, it could be an event or situation which relates to the answer, solution and suggestion that the students keep learning or engaged and make them feel everyday is very important because they learned something.
Sandra,
Many instructors have expressed the same frustration with canned PP slides as you have. Some take the presentations apart and then reformat them into mini-lectures to suit their own instructional style. Your approach is educational sound and enables the students to stay focused as you move through the class session. I would recommend that you continue using this method if it is yielding the results you want.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Asking lots of questions, try to make them think as much as possible to improve on critical thinking skills. I also like to keep them engaged by creating a positive attitude and engaging myself as much as possible
In my experience students are engaged automatically once they observe that I am not using the "canned" publisher powerpoint slides to lecture for the entire time we are together. Seems they get alot of that in other classes. I do not like to use alot of powerpoints. I prefer to talk key points for 10-15 minutes, switch to a review by working/discussing as a group, then work in little subgroups and actually apply the learning hands on. My students seem to appreciate this approach and find it refreshing. Have other instructors found that the canned publisher slides work for them? How do you change it up?
Utilizing diffent methods of delivering content combined with scheduled breaks and engaging each student.
