Energizing your Classroom

At this time of the semester, teachers and students could use more energy. The initial surge that came from the good intentions we had at the start of the semester has crashed into the hard work of daily assignments. The teacher who spends the next few weeks actively helping students stay enthusiastic will find the class in a better position to bring the course to a successful closure.

This week's tips offer some ways that you can energize your classes.

Keep Connecting

Sometimes the students' view of the forest gets lost in their concern for the trees -- those day-to-day responsibilities they face. Consider ways to remind students of the purposes and the plans that started them off.

Adjust. The last Weekly Tip suggested collecting information about your course and reflect on the data. You can re-energize your class by sharing your thoughts and explaining what mid-semester changes you will be making. Students respond positively to instructors who demonstrate that they listen (and act).

Revisit Goals. If you collected students' goals in the beginning of the semester (tip #4)? have students look at them again. Are they achievable? A short class discussion may go a long way to connecting their short-term commitments to the real long-term goals of the course. (In absence of student goals, you might have students respond to the teacher's goals.)

Recognize Gains. Have students write down one meaningful idea or skill they have gained so far. Collect and read a selection at the next class. Students may not recognize how much they are learning.

Encourage Participation

While a faculty member may wish that students would be automatically involved, there is a great deal to how we engage students that influences how energetic students are in our classrooms. The CIRT will send you a list of six instructional actions that will help charge your students' educational batteries.

From Easy to Hard I. Students stay energized when they experience success. Move students into new, harder work after they show mastery of easier content. If students are struggling, return to areas they understand and re-introduce more difficult material.

From Easy to Hard II. Class participation will be more enthusiastic if lessons are designed to begin with questions or topics that students understand readily and become, incrementally, more challenging. Plan questions that will produce a number of successful responses at the start of the class period. Encouraged, students will be more willing to participate when the going gets tougher.

Active Approaches. When energy starts to flag, move away from passivity. Don't tell students when you can ask them how. Have students introduce, summarize, or report. Stop the lecture before you reach your main point and have students guess -- out loud or in their notebooks. Have students role play a concept (this even works for abstract concepts).

Varied Approaches. Variety can recapture student attention. Guest speakers, panels, debates, or videos change the face in the front of the room. Games, groups, field trips, demonstrations, or activities can break students out of the routine.

Motivate

There are many factors that shape student motivation. Ask the CIRT for a chapter of tips for motivating students. Some general suggestions:

Enthusiasm. A teacher's enthusiasm for their subject is infectious. Share with students what it is about your field that makes you enjoy it. Talk about your latest work. Even if they don't have the same feelings, they will pick up your excitement.

Self-motivate. Instead of teacher-centered demands, focus on student efforts. Don't say "I want you to ..." if you can state, "You will be discovering ..." Rather than "You must ..." use "I'm here to help those who are trying ...." A teacher's words can shape a student's attitude.

Support. Telling students what they have done right is more motivating that pointing out what they have done wrong. Acknowledging success is an important step that comes before demanding more effort. Even when the results are less than expected, the teacher should use the occasion to give specific feedback and let the student know that they can correct these problems if they persist.

Final Comments

Teachers and students have many competing demands that drain their enthusiasm and slow their efforts at this point of the school year. Fortunately, teachers can use a number of strategies to reconnect, encourage, and motivate students. Helping them stay involved during the middle part of the semester helps make this one of the potentially most productive periods of the course. If, by contrast, students have begun to feel lost, overwhelmed, uncertain, or unrewarded, they will tend to lower their aspirations and hope to outlast the professor and survive the semester. The tips listed above are representative of some of the ideas that teachers should be using to turn the momentum in favor of greater learning.

This Teaching Tip was first published by Indiana State University’s, Center for Teaching and Learning on October 27, 1997.