Principles of Teaching Part 12

Where attention has to be secured out of disorder we are justified in making use of stimuli that shock pupils into attention. One of the best ill.u.s.trations of this sort of procedure was the method used in the David Belasco theatre in New York to get audiences quiet for the opening of the performances. Mr. Belasco was convinced that the orchestra had become a mere accompaniment to the clatter and noise of the audience and so he did not trust to that means to secure order. In fact, he discarded the orchestra idea. At the appointed hour for the curtain to rise, his theatre became suddenly dark. So dark that the blackness was startling.

Immediately upon the silence that attended the shock the soft chiming of bells became audible which led the audience to strain in an attempt to catch fully the effect of the chime. At that point the curtains were drawn and the first lines of the play fell upon the ears of a perfectly quiet audience.

It is safer and better, of course, to antic.i.p.ate disorder by getting the lesson under way in an interesting manner. These artificial devices are serviceable as emergency measures as well as helpful as restful variations in a cla.s.s hour. Change in posture, group exercises, periods of relaxation, all help to make attention the more easily possible.

The key to sustained attention, when all is said and done, is interest.

There is no subst.i.tute for the fascination of interest. As Magnusson says: "Monotony is the great enemy of attention. Interest is the attention-compelling element of instincts and desires." The teacher can feel a.s.sured of success only when he is so fully prepared that his material wins attention because of its richness and appropriateness.

Special thought should be given in the preparation of a lesson to the attack to be made during the first two minutes of a recitation. A pointed, vital question, a challenging statement, a striking incident, a fascinating, appropriate story, a significant quotation--these are a few of the legitimate challenges to attention.

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS--CHAPTER XI

1. Discuss the statement: "There is no such thing as inattention; when pupils appear inattentive, they are singly attentive to something more interesting than the lesson."

2. Explain the force of attention in the learning process.

3. What is attention?

4. Discuss and ill.u.s.trate the different types of attention.

5. Give some practical suggestions on the securing of attention.

6. Point out the distinction between attention and interest.

7. Discuss the effect of monotony on attention.

8. How do children and adults differ in their powers of attention?

HELPFUL REFERENCES

Pillsburg, _Attention_; Norsworthy and Whitley, _Psychology of Childhood_; Strayer and Norsworthy, _How to Teach_; Betts, _How to Teach Religion_; Weigle, _Talks to Sunday School Teachers_; Fitch, _The Art of Securing Attention_; Thorndike, _Principles of Teaching_; Dewey, _Interest and Effort in Education_; Brumbaugh, _The Making of a Teacher_.

CHAPTER XII

WHAT MAKES FOR INTEREST

OUTLINE--CHAPTER XII

Individual differences and interest.--What makes for interest.--Interest begets interest.--Preparation is a great guarantee.--Knowledge of the lives of boys and girls a great help.--The factors of interestingness: The Vital, The Unusual, The Uncertain, The Concrete, The Similar, The Antagonistic, The Animate.

After discussing the relation of interest to attention we still face the question: What is it that makes an interesting object, or an idea interesting? Why do we find some things naturally interesting while others are dull and commonplace? Of course, everything is not equally interesting to all people. Individual differences make clear the fact that a certain stimulus will call for a response in one particular person, quite unlike the response manifested in a person of different temperament and training. But psychologists are agreed that in spite of these differences there are certain elements of interests that are generally and fundamentally appealing to human nature. To know what it is that makes for interest is one of the prerequisites of good teaching.

But before naming these "factors of interestingness," may we not also name and discuss briefly some other essentials in the matter of creating and maintaining interest?

In the first place it is good to remember that a teacher who would have his pupils interested must himself be interested. If he would see their faces light up with the glow of enthusiasm, he must be the charged battery to generate the current. Interest begets interest. It is as contagious as whooping cough--if a cla.s.s is exposed it is sure to catch it. The teacher who constantly complains of a dull cla.s.s, very likely is simply facing a reaction to his own dullness or disagreeableness.

"Blue Monday" isn't properly so named merely because of the drowsy pupil. The teacher inevitably sets the pace and determines the tone of his cla.s.s. Many a teacher when tired, or out of patience, has concluded a recitation feeling that his pupils were about the most stupid group he has ever faced; the same teacher keyed up to enthusiasm has felt at the close of another recitation that these same pupils could not be surpa.s.sed. A student with whom the writer talked a short time ago remarked that she could always tell whether the day's cla.s.s was going to be interesting under a particular teacher as soon as she caught the mood in which she entered the cla.s.sroom. Half-heartedness, indifference, and unpleasantness are all negative--they neither attract nor stimulate.

Interest and enthusiasm are the sunshine of the cla.s.sroom--they are to the human soul what the sun's rays are to the plant.

The second great guarantee of interest is preparation. The teacher needs to have his subject matter so thoroughly in mind that, free from textbook and notes, he can reach out to a real contact with his boys and girls. If his eyes are glued to his book, he cannot hope to arouse keen interest. The eye is a great force in gripping the attention of a cla.s.s or audience. They want nothing to stand between them and the speaker.

Not long ago one of the most forceful and eloquent public speakers in Utah failed miserably, in addressing a thoroughly fine audience, because he was lost in the machinery of his notes. His material was excellent--his power as an orator unquestioned--yet he was bound down by a lack of preparation that cost him the mastery of his audience.

Not only does adequate preparation enable a teacher to reach out and take hold of his pupils; it makes it possible for him to capitalize on the situations that are bound to arise in cla.s.s discussion. A concrete ill.u.s.tration to clear up a troublesome question, an appropriate incident to hit off some general truth, a happy phrase to crystallize a thought--all these things are born only of adequate preparation.

Not long ago a candidate for the presidency of the United States delighted an audience of ten thousand or more in the Salt Lake Tabernacle by his remarkable handling of questions and comments thrown at him from that vast audience. There was no hesitancy or uncertainty.

He spoke "as one who knew." He was prepared. He had so lived with the questions of the day that they fairly seemed to be part of him. The interesting teacher never teaches all he knows. His reserve material inspires both interest and confidence. A cla.s.s begins to lose interest in a teacher the moment they suspect that his stock in trade is running low. The mystery, "how one small head could carry all he knew," is still fascinating. Thorough preparation, moreover, minimizes the likelihood of routine, the monotony of which is always deadening. A cla.s.s likes a teacher--is interested in him--when it can't antic.i.p.ate just what he is going to do next and how he is going to do it.

A further aid in holding interest is to know intimately the life of the boys and girls taught. To appreciate fully their att.i.tude--to know what sort of things in life generally appeal to them--is a very great a.s.set to any teacher. If a teacher knows that a boy's reaction to the story of the Israelites' crossing the Red Sea is that that story is "some bunk,"

he is fortified in knowing how to present other subjects which are similar tests to a boy's faith and understanding. To know pupils'

att.i.tudes and mode of life is to know what sort of ill.u.s.trations to use, what emphasis to put upon emotional material, what stress to lay on practical application. In short, it is to know just how to "connect up."

It stimulates to a testing of values so that a teacher selects and adapts his material to the needs of the boys and girls whom he teaches.

And, finally, as a key to interest, a teacher needs to know what the "factors of interestingness" are. According to the findings of the Public Speaking Department of the University of Chicago, they are summed up in these seven terms:

The Vital The Unusual The Uncertain The Concrete The Similar The Antagonistic The Animate

This list becomes more and more helpful as it is pondered. It is surprising to find how experience can be explained on the score of interest by reference to these terms. Those things are vital which pertain to life--which affect existence. Dangers are always interesting.

Catastrophies are fascinating. Just today all America is scanning the newspapers throughout the country to find an explanation of the Wall Street explosion. We shall not soon forget the feverish interest that gripped the people of the world during our recent world wars.

When life is at stake, interest runs high. So it does when property, liberty, and other sacred rights, so vital to life, are affected.

Anything vital enough to justify the publication of an "extra" may be depended upon to grip the interest of men and women.

It is equally clear that a fascination attaches to things that are unusual. New styles attract because of this fact. Let a man oddly dressed walk along a thoroughfare--the pa.s.sersby are interested immediately. A "loud" hat or necktie, or other item of apparel, attracts attention because it is out of the ordinary. Much of the interest and delight in traveling lies in this element of the new and unusual which the traveler encounters. The experiences of childhood which stand out most prominently are usually those which at the time riveted themselves to the mind through the interest of their extraordinariness.

Every reader knows the fascination of uncertainty. "How will the book turn out?" prompts many a person to turn through hundreds of pages of a novel. An accident is interesting not only because of its vital significance, but because there is always a question as to how seriously those involved may be hurt. One of the clearest ill.u.s.trations of the force of the uncertain is found attending baseball games. Let the score stand at 10 to 2 in the eighth inning and the grandstands and bleachers begin to empty. Few spectators care to remain. The game is too clearly settled. As the boys say, it is "sewed up" and there is nothing uncertain to grip interest. But let the score stand 3 to 2 or 2 to 2 in the eighth and even the man scheduled home for dinner stays to the end.

He wants to know how the game is "coming out."

It is easier also to be interested in concrete than in abstract things.

General truths are not gripping--concrete ill.u.s.trations of those truths are. If I declare that it is important to have faith, I create but little interest in an audience. But if I tell that same audience how some individual has been miraculously healed through faith, I have their interest completely. Concrete ill.u.s.trations fit into and link up with our own experiences so easily and forcefully that they are particularly interesting.

So, too, with things that are similar. The mind naturally links like with like. We are fond of making comparisons. The interest in the similar is due to that fundamental law of learning that we proceed from what is known to that which is unknown and we proceed along points of similarity.

And how natural it seems to be interested in things antagonistic! Our love of contests of all sorts is evidence of the fact. Who can resist the interest that attaches to a quarrel--a fight--a clash of any kind.

The best of cla.s.ses will leave the best of teachers, mentally at least, to witness a dog fight. Our champion prize fighters make fortunes out of man's interest in the antagonistic.

And then, finally, we are interested in the animate. We like action.

Things in motion have a peculiar fascination. Who does not watch with interest a moving locomotive? Advertising experts appreciate the appeal of the animate, as is evidenced by the great variety of moving objects that challenge our interest as we pa.s.s up and down the streets of a city and we respond to the challenge. In fact, it is natural to respond to the appeal of all of these seven terms--hence their significance in teaching.

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS--CHAPTER XII

1. Discuss the force of individual differences in choosing material that will be interesting.