As a teacher, it is your job to inspire and develop the next generation of thinkers, workers, and leaders, which can often prove challenging.
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Student Interest Surveys: Just Ask Them
As a teacher, it is your job to inspire and develop the next generation of thinkers, workers, and leaders, which can often prove challenging.
Teachers can often find themselves struggling to relate to younger people and might find staying relevant something of a challenge. One solution is to ask them and use student interest surveys.
Many of the most engaging teaching materials used in the classroom are from modern media. Whether this is an excerpt from a popular television show, a documentary based on whatever you might be studying at the time, or a famous speech in a history class, using the right materials can light up a classroom and grab your students’ interest. An engaged student is far more likely to work well, so the sooner you get their attention, the better they’ll do. However, you might need to employ a survey to work out precisely what media will work best for them.
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What to include in your surveys
Surveys are good as long as you ask the right questions. If the information you’re collecting from students isn’t relevant, it won’t help and could even lead your lessons down the wrong path. Some questions to include in any student interest surveys include:
- What is something you’d like to learn more about? This not only means that you can teach your students about things they want to learn, but with some clever lesson planning, you can tie in the topic you need to convey to them too.
- What annoys you? This is a simple question that can tell you a lot. Specifically, answers to this question will tell you what to avoid and what topics are touchy in your class. For elementary school kids, this will be different compared to tailoring lessons for middle school learners, so you’ll need to survey all of your classes to get them perfect.
- What job would you like when you’re older? Rather than helping specific lessons, this could inform your teaching style. For example, taking a more scientific approach would be most engaging for high school students who want to be engineers. The best way to get kids on board is to show them a clear target and let them get invested in reaching it.
- What are your interests? This applies most to day-to-day teaching since every lesson should be engaging. By knowing what your students are interested in, you can link that into your lessons and guarantee that they’re engaging.
Building up a student interest inventory, so you know exactly what can entice them in the classroom can ensure that your students are constantly engaged and become more involved in your lessons. Relatable content means reliable lessons. The more students can relate to what you’re saying, the more they’ll pay attention and absorb information.
What else can you do as a teacher?
Directly asking your students what they’re interested in might not necessarily give you the most honest answers. They could put in different answers as a joke or not want to reveal too much about themselves if they’re shy in front of an authority figure. There are a few steps you could take to make sure you know what your students are interested in, even if they won’t directly tell you:
- Engage with local and national trends. Kids will often talk about things a teacher won’t understand, so staying engaged will ensure you don’t feel completely alienated by new words or phrases. You could even use these to keep your students interested if they start discussing trends rather than the lesson.
- Keep up with the latest books, movies, and TV. Pop culture is at the heart of student conversations, whether it’s the latest superhero franchise or a one-off animated movie. By talking to your students about them, you can not only get a better idea of who your students are, but they’ll see you as someone they can easily talk to if they need it.
- Talk about the student at Parent/Teacher evenings. Conversations don’t need to be exclusively academic. By talking about the student’s likes, dislikes, and interests, you can get a better idea of who they are and how to help them from the people that know them best.
Does it lead to positive results?
There hasn’t been a huge amount of studies into how effective an interest inventory for students can be, but the pilot studies that have been done look promising. A study by the State University of New York in 2017 found that a class taught with their interests in mind saw greater test results at the end of the course than one not asked about their interests. This is just one study in one part of the country, but the report shows a clear way to improve student engagement. In this case, the questions students were asked were directly related to their interests, which meant they were more thoroughly thinking about the question because they liked thinking about it anyway.
How do I get started?
The best way to start getting to know your students’ interests is by using a student interest survey. By deploying this strategy and trying to keep up with pop culture and current trends, you can better understand your students’ thoughts, what they focus on, and, most importantly, how to get them engaged. The point of teaching is to get young people to develop and grow as individuals, and the best way to do so is by getting to know them all as they are.
