Chapter 10 Blog Entry

To capture the interest of a student, you must connect it to a native interest that they already have. A common lecture will capture a student's attention but a violent explosion will keep their attention in the classroom.

James states that "Novel things to look at or novel sounds to hear, especially when they involve the spectacle of action of a violent sort, will always divert the attention from abstract conceptions of objects verbally taken in" (pg. 46). In my classroom experience, I have found that explosive things attract a student's attention. At the University of Kentucky, The College of Education is located across the street from a Fire Station. I have been in class many times listening to my professor's lectures. But as soon as I hear a fire siren, my attention is directed towards the window so that I can see where the fire truck is going. After the sirens get lower, my attention is directed back to my professor. But if there was a fire truck without a siren, my attention would not divert from my professor. Lectures are nice but not many people want to be talked to all the time. Hands-on experiments are the best way to bring a lecture into the real-world perspective for the students in the course.

James speaks about interest in this talk. Sometimes, there are teachers who believe that lecturing will capture a student's attention for the entire class period. What are some tools that you could suggest to this teacher so that they can liven up their lectures in the classroom?