To ensure a quality learning experience for the students, the tutors must find ways to engage them. Because when they are genuinely interested to learn, they perform better. However, most tutors find it hard to capture the students’ focus and attention. As a result, they don’t get the results as per their expectations. To resolve this issue, the tutors need to know some common tips to enhance student engagement in learning. We have mentioned the top ones below. So, let’s have a look:
Top Tips For Tutors To Increase Student Engagement in Learning
Utilise The Students’ Prior Knowledge
The tutors can easily capture the students’ interest by utilising the knowledge that they have in advance. If they can connect the current topic to the concepts that the learners are already familiar with, the students find it easy to learn. In every subject, all the concepts are related to each other. As a tutor, you should examine the ones on which the students already have a stronghold. Afterwards, you can relate them to the current lesson, for capturing the students’ interest.
One of the best approaches to implement this tip is to start the session with some open-ended questions. This way, one can know the concepts that the learners are already proficient in and the ones on which they need more practice. Accordingly, the tutors can adjust their teaching patterns to complement the students’ learning abilities. In short, utilising the learners’ prior knowledge enables you to engage them from the very first lecture.
Find Out The Learners’ Interests
If the tutors know about the students’ interests, it is easier to curate an engaging learning experience for them. Because if the students are naturally inclined toward a particular topic, they can put more effort into learning it. Moreover, they can easily grasp and retain information for longer periods. Furthermore, the students stay curious to know more about the topics which they enjoy learning.
The constant urge of learning new things keeps them inspired and motivated toward their academic tasks. However, there will be some topics in which the learners don’t have any interest. For dealing with those concepts, you can relate them with the one that they have a stronghold on. All in all, knowing about the students’ interests facilitates a more captivating learning environment in the sessions.
Organise Regular Group Discussions
One of the most effective ways to capture the learners’ interest is by ensuring they actively participate in the class. Group discussions are the most effective ways to provide students with an interactive learning experience. As a tutor, you must organise regular group discussions throughout the session. The best group discussion topics are the ones in which the learners are interested and which relate to the concept you want to convey.
Considering an example, Economics tutors can arrange a group discussion on inflation and its effects on the economy. It is one such topic that every learner can relate to and which connects to many other subject concepts. During the group discussion, allow everyone to share their respective thoughts on the topics. This approach benefits students with introverted personality types, the most. Because they get the opportunity of speaking openly in front of the whole class and eventually eliminate the fear of public speaking.
After all the students are done participating, the tutors should wrap up the sessions with some key concluding points. This way, the learners don’t feel any burden during the sessions as they learn from simply discussing the topics. If you manage the group discussion sessions properly, you will surely see a boost in the students’ engagement which is good for their academics.
Incorporate Technology Into The Sessions
With the help of technology, the tutors can enhance the students’ engagement in the sessions. Most of the learners in the modern generation are “tech-savvy”. Therefore, they find it really interesting when the tutor uses technology in the classes and teaches a topic from a new and unconventional approach.
Consider an example, you announced that the next class will be on the projector. The learners who generally don’t take interest in the classes will also become excited to attend the session. Similarly, if you organise a test that is in a quiz contest format. The same set of students who generally fear the test will be ready to participate in the new activity.
This way, you can use various technological learning approaches to ensure that the students maintain full focus and attention during the sessions. Some of the commonly used technologies for learning are game-based, adaptive, and virtual reality.
Promote Healthy Competition Among Students
Healthy competition in the class benefits all the learners and keeps them inspired for their studies. In the pursuit of doing better than their fellow students, the learners considerably improve their own knowledge. This way, the students can become the best version of themselves by staying competitive in the sessions.
Another benefit of a competitive classroom environment is the students take responsibility for their own learning. They try to perform better than their classmates and strengthen their concepts with every other attempt. However, while designing the tests or quizzes, keep the level of questions slightly higher than the students’ understanding. It helps them to push their limits and improve further.
Regular Performance Track and Feedback
Tracking the learners’ performance and curating regular feedback keep them dedicated to their academic goals. With the help of detailed feedback, the students can have good clarity over their strengths and weaknesses. Consequently, they get to know the areas where they need to invest more time and effort. The attempt of improving their feedback from the last time keeps them motivated.
Moreover, don’t forget to add actionable points to the feedback that the students can start implementing right away. For instance, “pay attention to spellings”, “learn all the formulas and equations”, etc. They provide the students with the clarity to take action and improve their performance. This way, they show higher focus and attention levels in the sessions, which improves their engagement.
Avoid Making The Classroom Environment Stressful
With the increase in the number of academic tasks and the constant expectation to perform better, the classroom environment becomes stressful for learners. In such a situation, they start losing interest in their studies as they are unable to perform up to their potential.
To avoid this, the tutors must ensure keeping the class environment light-hearted to eliminate performance pressure from the learners’ minds. They can use the following activities which are meant for both learning and recreation to keep the students interested in the sessions:
- Use diagrams, pictures and illustrations to provide a better understanding of the respective topic to the tutees.
- You can organise the “vision boarding” activity in which the learners have to draw a picture to explain their dreams and goals.
- One can introduce small learning activities, which involve quizzes to test the students’ knowledge in a casual way.
Conclusion
After going through the above tips, tutors can surely improve the student’s engagement levels in the classes. All the tips have one thing in common that is: promoting self-learning in the students. Because the tutors can only assist the learners, and practically implementing things is ultimately managed by the students only. By staying active in the sessions and participating in various activities, the tutees can perform their best. For this reason, the tutors should focus to facilitate the best possible learning environment for the students and keep them engaged in the sessions.
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