How Do We Make Learning Interesting?

If learners are bored, learning diminishes. We need to keep learning interesting and relevant if we want learners to participate and learn. As Wlodkowski points out in his book, Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn: A Comprehensive Guide for Teaching All Adults*, learners can pay attention if they want to, but it takes work. Anything you can do to help them pay attention will reduce the workload on the learner and enhance learning. “When we first pay attention to something, it is because its variation, novelty, or relevance has emotional weight or meaning” (Wlodkowski, 2008, p. 228). The key is holding this attention because attention in a learning environment translates to engagement, and engagement leads to successful learning.

Turn Initial Interest Into Lasting Engagement

Wlodkowski notes that gaining interest is a key to engagement. This interest often begins as situational interest, which usually lasts a short time but emerges when something is new, unusual, or highly relevant. Situational interest may lead to individual interest. Individual interest in a topic is much stronger and can lead to true engagement in a learning situation. If you can make a topic relevant to learners, there is a good chance that learners will become individually interested.

When Wlodkowski discusses strategies for making learning interesting, he focuses on three areas: how to maintain learners’ attention, how to evoke and sustain learners’ interest, and how to deepen engagement and challenge adult learners.

Maintain Learners’ Attention

In order to maintain learners’ attention, Wlodkowski presents five strategies. These strategies vary from ensuring that you ask learners questions regularly while ensuring that you solicit responses with a state of equality. However, you must allow learners an opportunity to pass if they wish. When soliciting responses, it is important to keep the learning atmosphere positive and respect the learner’s input.

Wlodkowski also recommends changing modes of instruction and types of materials used. Adding variety to instruction helps to maintain learner interest. This also includes varying your presentation style by changing pace of instruction, the gestures you use, and body movements. Another strategy is making instruction points as clear as possible. Introduce your material with clear objectives relating to previous instruction. Include clear transitions when you move from one section to another while summarizing each section. Finally, clearly end instruction with a summary or a Q&A session.

Evoke and Sustain Interest

Wlodkowski presents seven strategies for evoking and sustaining a learner’s interest. One strategy I believe is key is tying a topic to the learner’s personal interests. Wlodkowski notes that if we tap into a learner’s concerns, the learner will be more interested in the topic.

Storytelling is also a powerful strategy for sustaining interest. We enjoy and remember stories. We like stories that are humorous or dramatic, but more importantly, we relate to stories where there is a lesson attached.

Concept maps are also a strategy to consider. Concept maps or mind maps are diagrams which show relationships between concepts or ideas.

Deepen Engagement With Meaningful Challenges

Finally, Wlodkowski provides eight strategies for deepening engagement and challenging learners. Ideally, you want to get learners into a state of flow. In a previous post, I related flow experience to my experience playing World of Warcraft. Some strategies include presenting problems that will challenge learners’ thinking. The problems have to be relevant and as realistic as possible. The problems should also be challenging. Learners will feel disappointed if the problems are too easy. Most people like a good puzzle.

Case studies are also great tools for challenging learners. Because good case studies are open-ended, learners must use all of their experience to come to a conclusion. The learners must explore areas where they do not have experience, thus scaffolding their learning.

Games and simulations are also powerful tools to help learners increase their experience and learning. Simulations allow learners to participate in activities that would normally be too risky, for example, shutdown procedures for a nuclear power plant.

Wlodkowski presents a framework that helps to build a motivating lesson. I have thought actively about these strategies and how I can incorporate them into my lessons. I believe they have already been successful. Clearly, in this post and my other posts, I am only covering the basics. I encourage you to explore the work of Wlodkowski, so you too can incorporate these strategies into your instruction.

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