The first and the most challenging task for a teacher is to get his students focused, and develop their interest in his lecture. Once he has locked the students in his lecture, watching them lose their concentration is equally problematic. Still, unless a teacher manages to keep his students focused throughout the lecture, there is no point in learning. It is very important for a teacher to understand the physique of his students because only then he will be able to form a proper bond with the students and develop a productive learning environment in class. Following are the most important ways to engage students in class and increase classroom participation.
Warm-up the class
A mind warm increases classroom participation. Communicative and kinesthetic activities that will get the students to interact actively and move around the class will activate learning and make students attentive and focused. It may include conducting answer-question session with students and allowing them to collaborate with each other or creating a small debate scenario by organising a competition among the students to remove potential dead time.
Make it interesting
To develop an effective learning environment, it is essential that students give importance to class activities. It is proved that if students don’t consider the lecture worthy of their effort and time, they will not engage in the necessary way or may even completely disregard the lecture. For this teacher should give examples, relate the lecture with past experiences and knowledge.
Positive teacher-student relationship
Another critical factor for developing student engagement is a high-quality teacher-student relationship, especially with challenging students and the ones with lower social background economically. When the students form a close and caring relationship with the students they are fulfilling their developing needs. Teachers can achieve this by caring about students, giving equal importance to all and by increasing interaction with the students.
Engage the students
The students level of engagement depends upon their perspective of learning. When the students perform an activity with the sole purpose of learning and understanding, then their involvement is more likely to increase. To promote mastery orientation, the teacher should develop the concept of performing the activity for learning and not for grades. Teachers should encourage students by framing success in terms of education.
Account for cultural diversity
Students in a class might belong to different cultures, and they have different prior knowledge, educational experience and cultural references. Teaching for cultural diversity is vital to make sure that what are the expectation and requirements of teacher and how they should learn the lecture and access the content. A teacher should treat all the students equally irrespective of their cultural background.
Motivate students to learn even before the lectures
Motivation can be another efficient way of increasing student engagement by enabling learning before the class lecture. Information about every topic is available on the Internet, and if students take class lecture by having some prior knowledge about the subject, then they will understand more. It will also increase their interest and engagement in the class.
References
Thorne, G. (2003, January 1.) What strategies can be used to increase memory? Retrieved September 01, 2017
Richards, R. (2008) Memory strategies for students: The value of strategies. Retrieved September 01, 2017, from the Web
Stephen, G. (2013, January 15.) 20 ways to improve your memory. Retrieved September 01, 2017, from the Web
Straus, C. (2016) Strategies for improving memory. Retrieved September 01, 2017, from the Web
