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Outline four ways of sustaining the learners interest in a classroom

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1. Focusing;
Failure to concentrate on a single aspect of a task is one of the characteristics of under/lo achievers. To many of them, the learned things are viewed as trivial. To keep such learners to the right track, the teacher uses motivation to get them to attend to classroom activities. This can be by cajoling or coaxing, threatening, cracking jokes, or making the lesson interesting.
2. Stimulus variation;
Most students have short attention spans so a good teacher should vary the learning activities so that the learners receive the stimuli that will keep them interested. Some behavior patterns that vary the stimulus and keep learners attention are;
(a) Gestures;
Head, hand, body and eye movements are important in oral communication. Oral communication alone does not convey meaning as effectively as it does when combined with gestures.
(b) Interaction styles:
A teacher normally uses 3 interaction styles in the classroom.
(i) Teacher – class i.e. lecturing
(ii) Teacher – student i.e. questioning
(iii) Student – student i.e. redirect students question to another student.
Deliberate varying of these interaction styles varies the context within which material is presented thereby increasing attention.
(c) Pauses;
When pauses are deliberately inserted into a presentation the following happens;
(i) The content is broken into more absorbable units.
(ii) Learners often become more attentive as silence acts as anew stimulus.
(iii) Since the stimulus lucks structure, learners may strain for cues and direction.
(iv) A distinct pause prepares learners for the teacher’s next statement.
(d) Shifting sensory channels.
When the teacher shifts from one communication mode to another, the learners also have to switch their “primary receptors” which normally leads to a higher level of attention.
(e) Movement
Teacher’s movements require student visual and aural sensory adjustment, which in turn increases the attention levels. But too much of it disrupts thinking.
3. Set induction;
The initial instructional move of the teacher should focus attention of learners on some familiar experiences so as to provide a link between the familiar or known to the unfamiliar or new. This encourages learners’ interest and involvement in the lesson.
4. Questioning
The teacher should employ various probing techniques when asking questions in order to get fuller student responses, which in turn sustains attention and interest of the learners.
5. Reinforcement
A student’s response to a question calls for reinforcement whether the answer is correct or wrong. Reinforcement, more so, positive reinforcement increases student participation.

Titany answered the question on September 15, 2021 at 08:13

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Outline four ways of sustaining the learners interest in a classroom

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