How to get students to pay attention in class

How can I keep students from getting bored and not paying attention during my lecture?

Students can become bored for many reasons.

* The instructor has not established good rapport with the class.

* The instructor fails to use relevant examples.

* Students may have no interest in the subject matter.

* The instructor has weak and ineffective presentation skills.

* The instructor reads from a scripted lecture with little or no contact with the audience.

1. The instructor has not established good rapport with the class.

The first day of class is an important time to begin building a relationship with your students. Tell them a little about yourself and about your research interests in this field--where your passion lies. Tell them why you think this course is important and how it will add value to their lives.

* Learn as many names as possible and use students' names in class whenever you can. For example, ask a student's name when you call on him/her. Refer back to students' comments when appropriate, ("That's in line with what Margaret said earlier, Jeff.")

* Be clear and fair about your expectations for students. Set high standards and provide the support and resources students need to reach those standards.

* Be friendly. Try to arrive early and stay a few minutes after class so that students can ask questions. Be in your office ready for students during your designated office hours.

* Provide a website for the course with useful resources--handouts, study guides, sample test questions, virtual office hours, a course FAQ etc.

* Demonstrate in as many ways as you can that you care about your students' success in your course.

2. The instructor fails to use relevant examples.

As often as possible center important ideas and concepts on something to which your students can relate. If you are explaining something about business practices, pick a local campus business as an example. Check area newspapers for events, editorials and other news stories that might tie in with the material you are exploring.

Use metaphors and analogies which tie difficult concepts to something that students more readily understand.

3. Students may have no interest in the subject matter.

At the outset, convince students that there is a good reason they should be studying and learning about this subject matter. Tell them how knowing this will make a difference in their lives. Be sure to be clear (in your syllabus and on your first day with students) about what students will know and be able to do as a result of this course and why that matters.

Use examples and illustrations which are relevant to your students' lives whenever possible.

Do not overload your students with content. Give them an opportunity to reflect, to apply what they have learned to other situations, to solve a problem and think critically about the material in the course.

4. The instructor has weak and ineffective presentation skills.

Consider being videotaped with a follow-up viewing and consultation with a member of the Teaching Effectiveness Program to assess the strengths and areas of improvement of your presentation style.

Pay attention to your pacing, the use and quality of your voice and gestures, your movement in the room, eye contact with your students, the amount of interaction you have with your audience, the variety of tools you use to present material: video, slides, overheads, visuals, music, storytelling, metaphors and analogies.

Examine the organization of the presentation, the use of multiple examples and illustrations to clarify concepts, how connections are made, the periodic use of internal summaries to help students understand the most important points you are trying to make.

TEP has an excellent video on how to lecture and speak effectively— How to Speak with Patrick Winston from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching Excellence at Harvard. Please contact Georgeanne Cooper ( gcooper@uoregon.edu ) if you are interested in viewing these tapes. They are now streamed on the Teaching Effectiveness Program Hub. If you have a current UO account, you can be added to this site to view several good teaching films.

5. The instructor reads from a scripted lecture with little or no contact with the audience.

Try to work from a good outline (using PowerPoint or Keynote) or present this as an overhead so that students can use it as an outline for your presentation. Make sure you use a 24 pt. type size and a readable font (simple serif fonts are best).

Don't make the entire focus of the class session a lecture. This puts all the pressure on you to perform. Think of ways to work with the material you want your students to learn in a variety of formats--presentation, small group work, individual reflective writing, video clips, slides, or appropriate web sites.

Classroom Etiquette

Classroom Etiquette: A Guide for the Well-Intentioned Instructor
Alison Bailey and Maura Toro-Morn, Illinois State University

Even the most well-intentioned people make mistakes. As instructors, one of our jobs is to make the classroom a place where all learners feel confident enough to participate. This involves challenging our own assumptions as well as those of our students. One way to do this is to be aware of subtle behaviors that make some students feel unwelcome or excluded. Keep the following in mind when you interact with students.

1. Everyone has race, ethnicity, gender and nationality. Hillary Clinton is just as ethnic as Maya Angelou. To think of persons who are not of European descent as exotic or ethnic reinforces the idea that whites are the norm and all others are defined in comparison to this standard.
2. Don't mention a student's race unless it is relevant to what you're talking about. Unless you are making a point in which race is relevant, think about whether or not racially labeling is necessary.
3. Don't ask African-American, Latina/o, Jewish, Gay/Lesbian, Italian-American etc. students to speak for the people of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or nationality. No one wants the responsibility of having what they say being taken to be representative of the entire race, religion, or ethnic group. Students may also be uncomfortable having to defend their race, class, or sexual orientation.
4. Don't assume racial-ethnic students know their history. You wouldn't call on a white woman and ask her to tell you about Susan B. Anthony because she is a white woman. Don't assume that Black students would know biographical information about Malcolm X. (It does not follow that racial-ethnic students are not knowledgeable about their own lives and conditions. Instructors should not try to speak for them on these grounds).
5. Don't ask students of color to educate the class on racism. Don't ask women to educate the class on sexism. Don't ask gay/lesbian or bi-sexual students to educate straight students on homophobia, unless they volunteer, or unless you know the student well enough to ask them. These are everyone's issues.
6. Avoid stereotypes in hypothetical examples, unless you make it clear that you are using this example as a pedagogical tool. Not all African-Americans are on welfare, live in Ghettos, or work in the service industries. Not all Arabs are terrorists. Not all Doctors are "he". Not all single parents are "she." Not all Latinas/os speak Spanish. Not all whites are privileged or rich. HIV and AIDS are not confined to the gay/lesbian community.
7. Learn student's names and how to pronounce them. Don't Anglicize names unless the student does also. You might ask students if they Anglicize their name.
8. Keep your audience in mind when preparing lectures and assignments. Don't assume that you will be speaking to a homogeneous group of people. Not all students live in dorms, are supported by their parents , or own computers. Some students work, some have children, some come from single parent households, and some commute. Don't assume that a student's college experience is a reflection of your own. Check your assumptions about students. You may want to consider this when you plan projects or assign extra credit.
9. Be aware of non-verbal behavior between students and yourself. Are you calling on men more than women? Do you/other students tune out, or talk when students of color/returning students speak? Who is talking in the class? Do you feel that students silence themselves in your class? Are students rolling their eyes when one of their classmates speaks? Failure to address these behaviors contributes to a chilly classroom climate for some students.
10. Don't let racist, sexist, or homophobic language and comments in the class discussion or essays go unnoticed. Do comments of students have racist/sexist/homophobic undertones? Ask students what evidence they have for their beliefs and to question their presumptions. No name calling.
11. If you classes are small, spread your eye contact around At the same time, don't just address Black students during discussion about slavery or civil rights. Don't focus on the Jewish students if you are speaking about the Holocaust or Pogroms. Don't address comments on reproductive rights and sexual harassment only to women. Don't address questions of immigration to Latinos, Haitians, etc.
12. People are not hermaphrodites. Individuals are not he/she. Vary your examples using "he" and "she". If sex/gender is ambiguous, then use the plural.
13. When possible integrate questions of difference into your course content and class discussions. This does not mean adding a few authors of color, or women writers/scientists. Putting issues of diversity in separate units on the syllabus sends a message to students that issues of race, class, and sex separable from the main course content and have no place in discussions of the American Revolution, moral theory, Realist paintings, or scientific revolutions. If possible try to integrate issues of diversity into your main course content.
14. If you take attendance don't just notice that the students with disabilities, or students of color are absent.
15. Make it clear that your classroom is a place where all voices can be heard and that you make mistakes too.