Interested at the First Sight

According to my experiences in teaching practice, I found that students’ condition in every school and class was different. Even students’ condition in a class could change from time to time. For instance, accelerated students who I taught (I call them my students in this article, even though they were not exactly my own students) in previous school experience followed my instruction and done all activities well in the first meeting, but it did not happen the same way as in the second meeting. At the first meeting, most of them were passive but at the next meeting they were talkative. It could be because of the activities conducted in the first and the second meeting were different or students’ mood, or the topic, or other possible reasons.

Somehow, it was a challenge for teachers to adjust the learning activities with any condition. In other way, teachers need to increase students’ interest in learning activities so that they could effectively and meaningfully engage in learning activities. There are four instructional variables that could be consider as the factors for developing students’ interest i.e. introductory focus, personalization, involvement, feedback.

Introductory focus means at the beginning of the lesson teachers attract students’ background and build conceptual framework for the lesson which is based on students’ experiences or past learning. It could be through giving question, providing concrete example and telling the objective which will lead students to the material. Since it is began with the problem into the material, the lesson sequences become inductive.

My students were more interested when I linked the new material with their experiences rather than with their previous learning. When I asked about something that related with their life, they were indirectly and subconsciously go into the learning. Inverse, when I talked about material that they have learnt, most of them just kept silent. They might feel that they should be serious and immediately memorize what they have learnt. Perhaps, I did not use the right technique to link it into their previous learning.

Moreover, according my students’ feedback, interesting appearance of teaching aid I presented has attracted their attention. I used Prezi for presenting the learning objective and agenda and also the material that I want to give. I think, teaching aids also should be considered in developing interesting learning activities.

Besides that, my pitch and my gesture when I opened the class also influence the next learning activities whether they pay attention to me, respect me, and follow the activities. My pitch in accelerated class was not a problem since it is small class with eight students in there. However, in another class the students were above 35 and my low pitch was troublesome. Most of them gave me feedback to speak louder and some of them asked me to be more enthusiastic.

Well, what teachers do at the very beginning of the lesson is very important for the whole lesson that day. It will affect students’ interest, attention, and respect to the teacher, focus, and understanding of the framework and so on. When the students are interested at the very beginning of the lesson, then teachers will easily maintain it for the remaining time rather than if they are not interested at all from the beginning.