Helping students stay focused
A few things that I have done in the classroom to help adult learners... If I noticed that some were uninterested or even falling asleep, I walk around the class and have more of a topic discussion than lecture or take a break from lecture and start lab for participation,to have them up and moving about.
I agree about more involvement and interaction with the students, having them write in a journal on a daily basis, but not sharing. These are personal feelings. sharing current events and allowing them to read, grade each others class assignments, not all but some exercises that they do in the classroom setting.
You are absolutely right. I will pretty much put on a dance and show to keep them engaged and excited.... it's hard with certain material which is mechanical in nature such as anatomy but once they start to apply it to what they will be doing & how this information is relevant to what they want to do as a PTA, it gets easier to keep them involved & attentive.
Hi Linda,
For some students 4 hours can be a long time. We need to really make things as interesting and exciting as possible.
Patricia
That's a great idea. In our curriculum, we have set lecture and lab courses so that makes it more challenging to keep them engaged during the up to 4 hours of lecture so I try to interject real case studies of patients and that usually gets their interest.
Hi Robert,
Great way to keep students alert and to ensure they are understanding various concepts.
Patricia
Hi Francine,
Technology is awesome, and we should certainly take advantage of technology as a great teaching tool. Generation Y loves technology!
Patricia
I try to break up my power point presentation with group discussions and videos as well as youtube shorts. It is amazing how many short videos there are on youtube to help students relate to the subject matter.
I try to break my lectures into short segments, 5 minutes or so, followed by a problem for the students to solve. The problem is directly related to the lecture topic.
This reinforces the lecture topic & keeps the students focused.
Hi Melissa,
The more student involvement the better. Active learning is a great way to maintain focus of the students.
Patricia
