Promoting Active Student Involvement.pdf

Children attend better and learn more when they are actively involved.  This means that they are engaged in the teaching and learning process.  Engaged means more than that they are sitting quietly and listening.  (Think about what real listening is.  It is more than looking like one is paying attention.  It is attention: applying the mind to what is being said and done).  For children, the ability to sit quietly and really listen has limitations, depending on the different age groups.  And while one goal of our teaching should be to stretch and grow children in terms of their ability to sit quietly and listen, it is unfair and inappropriate to demand that of them and then ignore the actual capabilities of their age group. 

So the question becomes, what can teachers do to increase the active involvement of children during the lesson in order to keep their attention?  One option may be for the teacher to become more active and dynamic in his/her presentation.  That is helpful, but not all of us have the personality or teaching style which is totally compatible with that solution.  So while we willingly work on voice dynamics, gestures, or visual aids, we are who we are and need to be genuinely who we are when we teach. 

To promote active involvement, we should be designing lessons that include activities in which the children are responsible to pursue answers, questions, thoughts, or conclusions on their own, teaching both themselves and others.  Keep in mind that this kind of activity is not fulfilled by rhetorical questions answered by the teacher.  These activities must be designed to fit the age group and the content of the lesson.  They can vary from activities that involve the whole class as individuals to partners or small groups.  The involvement can center around such things as: 

•  A question to be answered from scripture 
•  A conclusion based on scripture 
•  Finding and understanding a passage from scripture 
•  Finding a word, name or event 
•  Answering a question sheet 
•  Doing a puzzle of some kind 
•  Paraphrasing something 
•  Checking someone else’s understanding 
•  Reading to each other 
•  Repeating something after the teacher 
•  Reading or responding in unison 
•  Large group question and answer 
•  Sword drills and variations 
•  Participation with the teacher as part of the teaching 

Notice that at the beginning of the paragraph above I state that “these activities must be designed”.  That means that the teacher must think out ahead of time such issues as how to partner and pair people, how to make the task clear, what kinds of instructions or directions are necessary, what behavioral limitations will be needed, how the room will be organized, start and stop signals, how much time will be allowed, what materials are necessary, and how to check or confirm the answer or result of the activity.  This last item allows you to know if the point(s) was learned while also giving the children a chance to be rewarded by being heard and being valued. 

Each of these decisions is important to making the activity both stimulating and appropriate.  As with any classroom activity, there are pitfalls as well as great rewards.  The biggest roadblock most teachers find when they consider involving more active participation from the students is that it takes too much time and limits the amount of content that can be covered during the lesson.  That is true.   Just remember, though, that the goal of the lesson is learning, not how much content is covered in a given amount of time.  To have truths absorbed and taken home by more children is the ultimate goal. 

Children (and adults) really like to be involved in their learning.  Some are more shy than others, so a small group setting or partner activity may give the students a better chance to engage.  Some children have shorter attention spans than others so a change of structure might help them stay involved in the lesson. 

One more important point needs to be made about the necessity of active involvement. No one can tell what a child is learning if there is no forum to observe and confirm it. Some children need a little longer to think or like to think out loud with a friend so, in this case, a partner may be helpful.  Children need to repeat information in order to confirm what is being learned.  There are many more reasons why appropriately involving children into their own learning is productive and motivating.  For instance, children can be entertained by activity and interaction. This does not mean that you must eliminate interesting and fun activities, but to simply make sure that the entertainment is meaningful to their learning. 

Should one come to the conclusion, then, that simply having an abundance of active involvement is the only way to enhance learning?  The answer is, of course, “no”!  The answer is a flexible teaching design which includes variety in the lesson with lectures, visual aids, and active involvement, while taking into consideration the age of the class, space and time available, and who you are as a teacher.  This is no easy task, but remember the old teaching cliché :  practice makes perfect!