WEEK 7: INTERACTION! INTERACTION! WHERE ARE YOU IN THE CLASSROOM?

The central theme this week was INTERACTION in the classroom. One may wonder why in the 21st century we still debate of interaction in the classroom. Should it not go without saying that the interaction teacher -student is the very essence of instruction?

In fact, NO!

Having teachers and students in the same room doesn’t guarantee interaction is taking place.Interaction has been proved essential to the learning process, so why then some teachers still persist in delivering their instruction using approaches that strongly depend on lectures with no interaction with students. For some it maybe because they feel more comfortable this way, and others may blame the number of students in their classes.

STOP MAKING EXCUSES!

Generally teacher have high expectations about students’ thinking skills, but they should ask themselves whether or not they are actually training their students to develop these thinking skills!!

This week we got great tips from lecturers who believe that engaging students in their own learning is the core of their job. Why not following in these teachers’ footsteps?

For example, one may think that using some technological tools like PowerPoint in lectures suffices to settle interaction in the classroom. Open your eyes! Using PowerPoint can be as teacher –centered as any other one-sided teaching technique. However, with slight modifications it can turn to a great interactive experience for both teachers and learners. Instead of reading all through the slideshow, teachers can integrate elements of interaction like blank slides to shift students’ attention from the slide to the teacher or insert audio recordings and videos to address different learning styles.

Technology though not indispensable for interactive teaching definitely serves as a facilitating tool. What I particularly liked is this notion of just-in-time teaching. When students are engaged with course content outside and before coming to class, the classroom time can be used more efficiently and devoted to teacher- student or peer interaction more likely to increase learning.

This week, for instance, I gave my linguistic-class students some questions related to next week’s class and asked them to make a web search to find answers to these questions. I told them to email me their answers .I am expecting their responses before the class to adjust the time I will spend on each questions during the class. The class was on Wednesday, and I haven’t received any answer yet.
I think the main reason is that they are not used to be engaged out of the class, and for them I am asking too much. But I’m not giving up on them.

Indeed, it was another fruitful week with ideas from my fellow students and instructors which proves again that the power of INTERACTION in and out the classroom walls cannot be disregarded when designing our lessons.

Hassina