Gaining attention without raising your voice, face-to-face and remotely

Raising your voice when the hubbub starts. This is the kind of solution that ends up exacerbating the problem. Private discussions become louder and gradually lose energy. This solution momentarily places the relationship on a balance of power and on a terrain where the teacher is not certain of winning.

So what can you do to attract and keep attention? Here are a few ideas, some of them surprising, that can be used in both face-to-face and distance learning situations.

A single recipe: break the expected pattern of behavior

Nirel Matsil gives us a solution, which she describes in more than twenty different situations. Attention is lost when participants are no longer surprised or stimulated. The key is to interrupt a pattern of behavior that is too predictable. A continuous flow of words, a prolonged round-table discussion, a slideshow covered by a voice, and minds start to wander. So you have to interrupt the pattern of communication.

And interrupting a pattern takes guts! The proposals made by Nirel Matsil in her article require a certain amount of courage. She lists 29 in all. For example, she advises you to stop talking and start singing, or to quickly change your appearance.

More discreetly, she suggests announcing a birthday. Happy birthday" is sung, there's a moment of expectation, and the teacher informs the group that it's the birthday of some historical figure, real or imaginary, or even an animal in a zoo, and launches into a story.

As the author is aiming for a fairly young audience, some techniques use animal noises or, more generally, unexpected noises that will provoke astonishment.

Inventing rituals

Breaking codes, rhythms and habits rather than breaking your voice tells us...

Other approaches are based on the creation of rituals. When the hubbub rises, the teacher initiates an action, and the students follow it up. The idea is to implement a process learned at the beginning of the school term. Several examples:

• The teacher says a sentence and the pupils follow it up. It may be a motto, or a sentence that makes no sense at all. In this case, it can be changed regularly.
• The person calling for quiet says nothing but raises an arm, those who see him raise their arm in turn, and gradually the noise dies down.
• Trevor Muir describes a more energetic technique: the teacher says "clap your hands twice if you can hear me". Some of the group clap their hands. He continues, "Clap your hands three times if you can hear me. This time, more of them respond. It's not often necessary to go up to four!

And at a distance?

At a distance, a balance needs to be struck between activities that break the rhythm and progress that advances without overloading participants with too much cognitive load linked to the tools or learning situations. This balance is all the more important as it is not the same for every group or every moment in the group's life. Trusting others and offering alternatives is undoubtedly a solution.

To awaken attention, we recommend the fluky.io online application spotted by Tips and Learn. Rather than asking participants an open-ended question, you can launch polls or use applications such as Drag'n'survey.

In a virtual classroom or videoconference, this is a great way to regain attention. Fluky.io lets you draw lots to determine who will answer the question. But the draw isn't instantaneous. The wheel spins, slows down and the person's name appears. As the wheel spins, you gain in attention and concentration, because everyone expects to be questioned, and has time to prepare their answer.

Of course, the range of tools is rich, whether face-to-face or remote. Competitive games, online tests, time-limited activities and collaborative productions are all solutions for breaking the interaction pattern when participants have to engage in a fairly lengthy activity.

It's worth noting, however, that these issues are much less of an issue when training is built around individual or group activities, and the trainer no longer plays the role of conductor. If it's becoming necessary to restore attention on a regular basis, it's undoubtedly time to change learning situations!

Illustrations: Frédéric Duriez

Resources

Mrs Little - Feeding Stick Figures - How to gain your students attention without raising your voice - July 2020, accessed January 10, 2021
https://www.trevormuir.com/blog/students-attention

Nirel Matsil - Powtoon - 29 effective ways to get your students' attention without ever raising your voice - accessed January 10, 2021
https://www.powtoon.com/blog/29-super-effective-ways-students-attention-raising-voice/

Trevor Muir - 10 ways to get your student's attention without raising your voice - consulted on 10 January 2021
https://trevormuir.com/2020/02/21/students-attention/