eye contact
I’d like to say that the ability to make good eye contact is one of the social skills a lot of young men seem to be struggling with these days, which would be true, but I’ve encountered enough gaze-averting middle-aged men to know that it’s a multi-generational problem. And actually, it’s probably something men have always struggled with—females are on average better at making and holding eye contact than males, and in fact, it’s been found that the higher the levels of testosterone a fetus is exposed to in utero, the less eye contact they make as infants—across genders. Interestingly, the exception to this rule are male babies who have the very highest levels of T; they end up being as adept at eye contact as their female counterparts—alpha babies aren’t afraid to look you in the eye!
I agree with Joe that eye contact is important to make the students feel engaged.
Matthew,
another idea is to look just above their heads at the wall behind them. From a little distance it looks like eye contact.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Im new to teaching in a classroom setting. Its a struggle for me to keep eye contact but im getting better with it. Comes with practice i guess. A trick ive known of to make things easier is look a persons forehead rather than the eyes. Any other tricks out there that any one may suggest?
Joe,
yes, eye contact is very important as it helps engage the students & also helps get a feel for where they are in attention & understanding.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
It is important to make eye contact when instructing I think. This can help keep the attention of the students. It can also be used to emphasize a point.
