Subject: Bored students: Another try at focusing the discussion

Posted by Steve Crowley on 1/1/2011
In Reply To:Bored students: Another try at focusing the discussion Posted by Richard Turnock on 1/1/2011

Message:

We were just having a discussion this morning about a friend’s efforts to infuse excitement, or at least a few notches above boredom, into a class she was teaching recently. Happened to be adults, emotionally struggling adults, but the patterns will be familiar. As she started her class, she noticed that one of the students was having trouble looking up, with some very timid body language. As my friend gradually calmed her own tone down into a less assertive voice, this student seemed to come out of her shell a bit and perk up. Success!! Shortly after this, another student entered. The new student seemed to do well at first, but then started sinking and almost nodding off. My friend realized she needed to pick things up a bit and did so, bringing the new student back out or her dream world. But as she did this, immediately, student #1 again retreated into her own space. One can imagine this dance going back and forth, back and forth.

Now, this is a unique situation. But aren’t most classrooms unique situations? Any model addressing boredom or excitement might somehow take into account wide variety of student dispositions, which are often in conflict with each other. Each student is going to respond to a different kind of stimulus…. The leverage points you are looking for. The successful teacher is going to be one who can find those many individual entry points.

Follow Ups:

Bored students: Another try at focusing the discussion - Richard Turnock 1/1/2011 
Bored students: Another try at focusing the discussion - Pedro D. Almaguer Prado 1/1/2011