CLASSROOM  MANAGEMENT

4 Key Ideas to Spark Students’ Interest

Last Updated 11 September 2023/ By Zineb DJOUB

As a new teacher,  my major concern was to help students understand my lessons to do well in exams. I was always looking for the simplest way to make myself understood, fetching materials and resources from libraries to provide my students with in-depth practice inside and outside the classroom. My mind was racing with thoughts on how to make my instructions clear but I never took the time to think about my students’ interest. Over time, I came to realize that clarifying instructions is essential, but teaching is not only about instructions. It has to do also with grabbing students’ interest to get their attention and boost their learning.

Students’ interest does really matter to us as teachers because :

• Interested students are attentive: they are more focused, follow their teachers, pay attention to all details, and show respect. Committed
• Interested students are concerned with learning: They participate in class, do assignments, want to learn more, think, initiate, and share ideas with others. Engaged
• Interested students are committed to improving and overcoming the difficulties and challenges that hinder their progress. Resilient
• Interested students can empower their teachers and classmates. Their interest energises and inspires teachers to think, innovate, and further their professional development. They can also reach out to other students. Collaborative
• Interested students are lifelong learners. Because they enjoy learning, they are likely to extend their goals beyond attaining academic success. Intrinsically motivated

Because students’ learning is entirely related to our teaching, to raise their interest we need to question the way we need to render our teaching more and more interesting for them.

Here is how :

1. Getting to know students

We must know our students: their learning styles, what they already know, what they need to know, what kind of learning experience they have, their opinions concerning the subject matter we teach, etc.

Getting such knowledge indeed requires time and constant interaction with students, still, it needs to be every teacher’s target from the first day of school. This will support us to select relevant content, differentiate instructions, and thus captivate students’ interest in the course.

We can administer questionnaires to students, do interviews, and observe them along our courses to know them more. But what matters most is how we use such knowledge to make them interested in learning.

Knowing students alone cannot be constructive unless we are flexible and reflect on our practices. So we have to learn about what kind of students we have; the starting point to shift towards more personalized instructions.

Then, along with such an exploratory journey, we need to test out such knowledge, using a wide variety of learning resources tailored to meet the specific needs of each student. Keeping on observing and reflecting on what is going on is necessary as it is going to tell us more about what sparks our students’ interest in learning.

 

2. Valuing the business

To sell any product or brand, promotion is the key element to bring in more customers and ensure profitability for businesses. Promotion involves increasing people’s awareness of the products and making them more interested in purchasing them.

Similarly, teaching is like a business process where people (teachers and students) interact to exchange information and commit themselves to hard work in order to achieve their goals (learn and progress).

Promoting students’ learning requires capturing their interest. This happens when we value our job when we show how much love, concern, and dedication we have for it, and when our interest and enthusiasm become the defining traits of our characters and attitudes.

Students’ interest is also sustained when we value every content we introduce. This is through clarifying the relevance of such content to students’ learning and success at the beginning of each lesson, cueing students on important points, and keeping on stressing the importance of knowing, doing, and creating something meaningful to their learning.

Not only can words express how valuable our teaching is, but also our attitudes and passion can say a lot about it.  This becomes apparent when we cooperate with students and show interest in achieving our intended goals when being available to listen and support each one, smiling and caring even in tiring and tough moments.

 

3. Inspiring curiosity

Introducing students to content that inspires curiosity is necessary to spark their interest. But, what criteria of selection do we need to refer to to make the right selection of content?

Curiosity is stirred by self-directed and passion-driven learning. It is fueled by thought-provoking stimuli and enhanced more through constant productivity.

So, an inspiring content for students’ curiosity:

• Empowers students to create and share their own resources, and gives them a space to voice their opinions.
• Calls for their critical minds.
• Motivates them to produce more and not just consume information.

 

To integrate effectively such content, we do not have to devote the entire time to teaching towards the curriculum. We need to connect students’ learning to their passion, providing them with opportunities to think, collaborate, share, and create while respecting them and valuing their work. This contributes to students’ interest and learning.

That would seem impossible to actualize when we think about time and the struggle most teachers have to teach towards the standards.

But, why not make teaching towards the standards a stimulus for students’ curiosity? So the content that inspires curiosity is related to the standards and targets our learning objectives including curiosity.

It is all about planning and reflecting continuously on what we are doing to improve more. We can even go beyond the standards and plan for Genius Hour for our students where they follow their passion and create their own projects (make podcasts, PBL, do presentations, etc.). The process is worthwhile doing because it taps into students’ interests and learning.

 

4. Upgrading to the next levels

As the world is changing, there is a need to keep up to speed with the latest developments in Education. Attending conferences, taking professional development courses, listening to podcasts, and reading can provide us with all sorts of learning to make us more familiar with education trends.

Also, Twitter! Yes, Twitter is a great source of learning because we can chat with educators, share experiences, learn from each other, and get more inspired….so these can change our lives as teachers.

But, how can such learning contribute to students’ interest?

Learning on the go is a source of empowerment because it makes us more professional, flexible, and innovative and thus likely to stimulate students’ interest in learning. For instance, we can learn about :

• what contributes to our professional development,
• how to manage our classrooms more effectively,
• interesting learning resources for our students (printables, books, ideas, etc.),
• new technological tools to integrate into the classroom to support students’ learning,
• how to enhance 21st-century skills,
• how to achieve work and life balance,
• HOW TO MAKE STUDENTS MORE INTERESTED, etc.

 

Learning is essential for our development, but it needs to be adapted to our context. Indeed, we have to think about how and when to integrate such learning into our classroom to get students’ interest and ignite their learning. We should not let our enthusiasm to experiment with new things rule over our actions and decisions, as this can lead to overloading students and draining their motivation and involvement. What we have learned is not meant to add to students’ learning, but to transform it.

Another reason why our learning relates to students’ interests. When we keep on learning, we also gain much more interest in teaching and students’ learning, a necessary element to sustain students’ interest as stated previously. Besides, our interest in learning will rub off on our students if we value it and show our passion and dedication through our practices.

These are the 4 key ideas to spark students’ interest, one of my major goals in teaching and training my students. Now, I am chasing it while planning, looking for materials, designing tasks, interacting…. The questions that are always hanging out in my mind are: Are my students interested? Are they getting more interested or am I a boring teacher?

I am searching for the real answer in my students’ eyes, voices, attitudes in the classroom, and their commitment to learn and improve. I am doing my best to spark my students’ interest to make teaching an unforgettable experience for them. How about you? What other ideas do you recommend to raise students’ interest in learning?