Active Learning Blog

6 Ways to Help Increase Classroom Participation

May 13, 2015 7:00:00 AM by Fred Krazeise

Do your students need a little boost to keep them engaged and participating in your learning activities? Here are six strategies you can implement to encourage better classroom participation.

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1. Enable Anonymous Questioning

When content is difficult, students are not always open to exposing their confusion or misunderstandings in front of their peers. Anonymous questions allow them to voice their questions without anyone knowing who is asking, taking the peer pressure out of the equation and encouraging more interaction.

2. Give Them a Choice

Many curriculums are very instructor-centric. Give the students a choice when it comes to the direction of their learning. Asking an open-ended question or using an active learning solution like Echo360 to poll the class as you determine your course of action for the class content is one way to do this.

3. Assess Prior Knowledge

Students won't typically engage with a lecture that's covering something they already have learned. It's boring to them. Increase classroom participation by first assessing prior knowledge using in-class interactive questioning, then move the lecture in an appropriate direction based on the results.

4. Break up Lectures

Students are only going to listen to an instructor speak for about 10 to 15 minutes. Breaking up lectures with activities, interactive questions, and other ways to keep the students engaged will not only increase classroom participation but also keep them focused.

5. Keep Minds Working

Interactive lectures help keep students busy and their minds engaged. The built-in student engagement tools in Echo360 let you ask questions throughout the lecture that require responses to keep minds engaged.

6. Encourage Peer-to-Peer Learning

Finally, look for ways to cultivate group activities, which bolster peer-to-peer learning. In addition to increasing classroom participation, you can also improve learning outcomes, as many studies have shown that peer-to-peer-learning plays a strong role in overall learning.

Echo360, with its interactive tools and analytics, allows instructors to perform all of these strategies as they look to increase classroom participation. The end result is more engaged students and better learning outcomes, all with a simple boost from technology.

Learn one instructor's tips for increasing student engagement in his large classes while also improving learning outcomes in the process:

 

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