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Refuse To Be A Boring Teacher: 15 Ways To Have More Fun: Saga Briggs
Refuse To Be A Boring Teacher: 15 Ways To Have More Fun: Saga Briggs
By Saga Briggs
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We’ve all had that teacher–the one who speaks in a monotone voice and reads aloud from
the textbook. And we’ve all had the opportunity to not be that teacher. We’ve even had our
moments, recognising that flash of interest in our students’ eyes, smiling as the bell rings
because the energy is so high and no one wants the period to end. How do we extend
these moments? How do we create an environment that keeps students stimulated and
craving more? How do we have more fun?
One study of student boredom suggested that almost 60% of students find at least half their
lectures boring, with about 30% claiming to find most or all of their lectures boring.
“Although a range of factors may contribute to these findings, they do prompt the question
of what it is about the learning experience that might be deemed ‘boring,'” says Dr Sandi
Mann, a senior lecturer in occupational psychology at the University of Central Lancashire.
Mann and her colleagues found that students adopt a variety of strategies to cope with
boring lectures. The most popular are daydreaming (75%), doodling (66%), chatting to
friends (50%), sending texts (45%), and passing notes to friends (38%). Over a quarter of
students leave the lecture at the mid-session break.
“This ‘class cutting’ is potentially the most serious consequence, since previous research
has shown a link between attendance and grades.”
One of the simplest and most effective ways to prevent boredom is to have fun yourself. If
you are having a good time, chances are your students are too.
In a 2002 paper called The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion and its Influence on Group
Behavior, Yale University researcher Sigal G. Barsade separated 94 business students into
small groups, each with the same hypothetical task of allocating employee bonuses.
Barsade secretly planted one student in each group to act out a different emotion:
enthusiasm, hostility, serenity, or depression. When the infiltrator was enthusiastic, he
smiled often, looked intently into people’s eyes, and spoke rapidly. When he feigned
depression, he spoke slowly, avoided eye contact, and slouched in his seat.
Barsade measured participants’ moods before and after the exercise and found that
students who caught the actor’s positive emotions were perceived by others and by
themselves as more competent and cooperative. The positive groups also believed they
were more collegial than those in the bad-mood groups. But when Barsade asked the
students what influenced their performance, they attributed it to their skills. “People don’t
realise they are being influenced by others’ emotions,” she says.
Mimicry is a basic biological mechanism that may confer an evolutionary advantage, says
Peter Totterdell, PhD, senior research fellow at the University of Sheffield in England. “It
helps you understand what another person is feeling and thinking–even when she’s trying to
hide it.”
And research shows that if you can put your students in a good mood, they will learn more
too.
“Brain research suggests that fun is not just beneficial to learning but, by many reports,
required for authentic learning and long-term memory,” writes Sean Slade for The Answer
Sheet. Neurologist and educator Judy Willis’s book “Research-Based Strategies to Ignite
Student Learning: Insights from a Neurologist and Classroom Teacher” (ASCD, 2006) is
one of many that have highlighted the learning benefits of fun:
“The truth is that when the joy and comfort are scrubbed from the classroom and replaced
with homogeneity, and when spontaneity is replaced with conformity, students’ brains are
distanced from effective information processing and long-term memory storage.”
“The highest-level executive thinking, making of connections, and “aha” moments are more
likely to occur in an atmosphere of “exuberant discovery,” where students of all ages retain
that kindergarten enthusiasm of embracing each day with the joy of learning.”
4. Participate in projects.
I had a creative writing professor at uni who would bring his own material to class for the
students to workshop. It was great fun for all of us, and enjoyable for him as well. Stepping
down to our level and actually participating in an activity he assigned himself made us all
more engaged in the task because he was willing to be a part of it.