While I agree with dear Professor BK Punia on demonsrating good behaviour by both sides, I think that the lecturer ought to avoid excessive participation (a problem which I faced last semester when I taught organic chemistry to 2 sections of medical students). One of the sections comprised 52 students while the other was 58 students plus not less than 10  visiting students to each. Had I given all the chance to participate, I would have covered 5 chapters while the required was 10 chapters. We ended up covering 9 chapters because I allowed partial participation. For the very few, who asked me to repeat a topic, my simple plain answer was : I shall not unless the majority of the class asks me to do so.

Perhaps, if you called on different students during your lecture they will be more apt to participate. Also if there is a current syllabus and the students are aware of what is required for the class you can ask them pertinent questions about the reading, as an instructor your job is to teach but it is often difficult to teach enthusiasm or the willingness to learn as we know some students expect to come to class, sit there and take a test and have you give them a passing grade so push them a little or a lot if they are in the University they should be able to handle it.  

To some extent it depends how big the class is. If the class is small enough that you can walk among the students as you teach, then you can ask many of them small questions as you go along, or ask for comments at least.

Try to make it fun, even humorous, but let them know that participating is part of what you expect from them. You can perhaps tell them that if they participate they are more likely to get a better grade. Also tell them that the learning process requires active participation from both sides. Praise them when they give a good answer.

Also, if you try to make your own presentation more lively and interesting, with luck the students will be happier and will feel more like joining in.

In my humble opinion, participation of students during a lecture could be constructive but not all the time. The lecturer has to be aware that it may develop into over-participation with possible reduction of the subjects to be covered.

Encouraging active constructive participation requires creating a positive classroom environment & the lecturer has to build rapport with students, learning the names of many of them, and knowing what they are hoping to get out of the course and what preparation & background knowledge they have.

The students ought to know what does it mean to participate in the lecture start from the beginning of the course (the student who asks the lecturer to repeat something is not really participating) & they must accept that the lecturer is the leader who may change the activities every 10-15 minutes.

After articulating the rules of participation & discussion, participation comes by inculcating the importance of knowledge to be learnt, by relating knowledge to life, by raising the level of curiosity, and by challenging the students through the brainstorming mechanism. If after all, the students remain "static", then they are required to do assignments or literature survey in a range of topics from which students can select.

 I used to do all that in the 1980s & 1990s but the increasing numbers in classes, at present, has hindered good implementation of these methods.

Think an instructor can increase students' participation during a lecture through the following:

1) After sharing the key lectures / key points, ask questions for students to answer - this will help them to pay attention, evaluate how much they have learned and promote rivalry for the best answer.  In order to avoid incapable to answer questions from the lecturer, this might promote students to pay attention and even ask questions first before being asked.

2) As some scholars have shared - try to make the learning is fun & interesting for students by sharing humorous stories, jokes or even demonstrating simple magics to catch students' attention & participation.

3) Before a class / lecture ends, remind students what are the next lecture's materials they need to go thru before coming for the class - so that students are prepared & focus on learning when coming for the next class & set baseline for students on what they need to know / do before coming for the next class.

4) Not sure this one will work for lecturers - remembered during 1 of the subjects in my post-graduate course, a professor liked to conduct his test in verbal answering i.e. student by student he asked question & given the student 15 seconds to complete the answering else the right to answer will pass on to the next student.  That caused us to concentrate what he taught in the class as he also liked to ask question during his classes.

Thanks doctors I see that doctor Nizar has an important  opinion in this field and doctor hang presented agood steps that i will try in my lecture also Gerry & Susan

thank you for your help

Well, in my opinion it depends on which subject you are teaching. if it is related to management or general  then seminars, Group activities, role plays will increase the enthusiasm of students. if the subject is science/ technical then we can ask students to come up with the activity to represent the concepts  also to make documentary, ppt presentations will do. No doubt jokes n fun should be  part of lecture.

Student participation in the class depends upon the instructor largely. If an instructor practices the following, the participation can be encouraged to a large extent:

• There should be an environment of trust and influence between the two wherein both parties need to understand that communication can be effective with mutual participation.
• Both parties need to understand the limitations of each other wherein the students should not consider the instructor as an encyclopedia wherein you can find all the answers. At the same time the instructor should also not pose that he knows every thing and the students are unaware as today's students are quite well read and intelligent.
• An instructor should not criticize the student(s) for wrong answers if any as this will discourage them from future participation.    
• An instructor should call the students by name instead of roll number as it will build faith and respect in each other for further participation.
• If any student challenges some lecture content of the instructor by factual information, the instructor should admit.
• And lastly, what a teacher preaches in the class, should also follow himself i.e. if the instructor instructs to be regular and punctual, he himself need to follow it first. For instance if he late any day, should realize it on entry to the class.

These are some of the behavioral issues and content and context of subject matter are over and above.

 While I agree with dear Professor BK Punia on demonsrating good behaviour by both sides, I think that the lecturer ought to avoid excessive participation (a problem which I faced last semester when I taught organic chemistry to 2 sections of medical students). One of the sections comprised 52 students while the other was 58 students plus not less than 10  visiting students to each. Had I given all the chance to participate, I would have covered 5 chapters while the required was 10 chapters. We ended up covering 9 chapters because I allowed partial participation. For the very few, who asked me to repeat a topic, my simple plain answer was : I shall not unless the majority of the class asks me to do so.

I agree with Dr. Nizar.  Too much participation of students in a lecuture it is no longer a lecture. We can call it a seminar. A good lecture will grab all the students attention. It can take hours on end. See in a conference. If the lecturer is good, he will hold thousands of people's attention without problems and for hours.

I think the teacher should devise other methods of teaching and using enough teaching aids and the teacher should make each answer question in the class and also correct their mistakes in the class. 

Dear all,

I also agree with Dr. Nizar.

Regards

The most effective method is to use catching teaching tools. Slides and presentations must be prepared in an attractive manner. In the class students must be engaged in learning activities as much as possible. They must not be kept as passive listeners. Thought provoking questions should be asked frequently.

Interactive lectures and create an atmosphere of integration with the lecture through modern information and you should be some questions and be sure that attendance to lecture has value and effect on their understanding.

Teachers do not need necessarily to have all students fired up. If he is good at what he does and he has good communication skills, he will be able to lead his students without much efforts. But it is needed a teaching philosophy which he will obey during his practice. He needs to know his goals and feel the students. An excellent method which does not promote learning is good for nothing. This is not a matter of methodology, but has to do with teachers, students, classroom resources and how teachers and students meet in that context.

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Getting students to participate in class:

Here are a few simple strategies to get students to respond to questions or participate more:

Please, see the following links for detail:

http://www.usciences.edu/teaching/tips/management.shtml

http://www.teachhub.com/top-12-ways-increase-student-participation

http://www.usciences.edu/teaching/tips/spal.shtml

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/10-benefits-of-getting-students-to-participate-in-classroom-discussions/

I agree with Dr Sudev,Vilemar,Hassan,Tahir and Susan

Hi Fatima,

Thanks for your important question. I concur with all the good strategies provided by my colleagues. 

Over the years, I've learned to lecture less and less and create a variety of learning activities to engage my students (e.g., case studies, specific discussion in dyads or triads followed by class discussion, discussion of videos, etc.). Now I try to lecture no longer than 10-15 minutes at a time; if I lecture longer than that, I frequently ask questions to facilitate interactions.

Like some of us, I spell out my expectation of active class participation in the first class and enforce it as a course requirement (i.e., points will be earned for participation). 

I've also learned from Stephen D. Brookfield. in his book The Skillful Teacher, Brookfield suggested that we ask students such questions after a short segment of our lecture:

• What's the most contentious statement you've heard so far in the lecture today?
• What's the most unsupported assertion you've heard in the lecture so far?
• What assumptions do you see as underlying the arguments made so far?

Best wishes,

Stephen

http://www.textbooks.com/BooksDescription.php?BKN=758656&SBC=EDW&kpid=9780787980665U&kenshu=35c3a8d9-bbea-4c10-892d-d2b8ae228f50&mcid=XKS-7564-41-446-GoogleShopping-PRIDREPLACE-291&gclid=CP7dvsvFzMcCFUhgfgodPwQGDw&kpid=9780787980665U

Your questions are so smarts and very helpful for new and ancient teachers.

To increase participation of students all the time I think that the lesson have to be more attractive, may be with ppt presentations or photos or videos, using for example some films if they exist related to the lesson. 

There are many contributing factors, e.g., increase the participation of students, make your class atmosphere more lively, tailor your teaching material to make it more interesting, etc. 

Thanks to all collegues for these constructive advices

Another point is that the instructor should encourage the students to do tutorials amist themselves in order to have a good response from while in class