Interactive Lecturing

CHAPTER 10Generating Enthusiasm and Interest

Those of us who have been teaching for some time know that motivation is critical to students' ability to learn. Students who are highly motivated to learn from our lectures are willing to focus their attention and invest the effort required to understand and remember the information we present. Research on lecturing and learning supports the importance of motivation for learning, particularly highlighting declines in learning due to low motivation (see, for example, Bolkan, Goodboy, & Kelsey, 2016; Komarraju & Karau, 2008). We want students to be motivated to learn from our lectures, but getting them to engage with a presentation can be difficult, especially if they don't have much interest in ...