It is often said:

Have you ever wondered why you remember vividly what you were doing when

you received the news of the September 11 bombings or what you were doing

when you felt the little quakes of the earth during the famous Ikeja explosion?

Those events are tied to strong emotions (“horror” and “fear”) hence your mind

keeps the pictures and replays the scenes with accuracy.

I may not be able (in all entirety) to point out clearly why I remember him, maybe

it’s because I like him, because I love his method of teaching or maybe it’s

because I just love chemistry. Though, there were eight other teachers but I can

still remember his classes, the way he darts in front of the class asking and

answering questions, the way he leads my thinking process, leading me to find

answers to my own questions. I can even remember the fact that he teaches us

on Tuesdays(single period) and Thursdays(double period) and how sacred I hold

those days, how important those 45minuites of his class were to me. How he

makes me actively engaged in his class, how he makes chemistry lively and

happening around me, showing me how much of a chemist I’ve been and how

much more I can be, I still remember him. His name is Mr. Ehirim (my secondary

school chemistry teacher) and one thing I can say about him is that

In today’s world of teaching and learning, while the teacher stands in front of his

students with his manuscript and lesson notes hoping that whatever he teaches

will be learnt. It often remains said that most times a teacher fails at his task not

because he was not prepared but because he has reduced teaching to lecture

(the pouring out of facts and details on the child). I can remember my days in the

university, when lecturers will just come to us with notes (notes we could have

easily picked up from the library or internet and read on our own

), when I remember those days I often ask myself the real job of the lecturer

‘cause if I remove the notes he has copied and read to us, I cannot actually see

what he has done to make us learn.

In our present materialistic world, the child is exposed to different stimuli, each

craving his/her attention, this leaves the child as a victim of technology, peer

pressure and social issues etc. so while the child sits in class looking vividly at the

teacher(who’s in his own world, fervently reciting facts and details of his course

content) the child could as well be thinking of Chelsea and how he/she intends to

celebrate the champions league victory or something else (like Facebook chat or

even pinging on his/her blackberry) because he is a passive participant in

the class, his/her attention can easily drift from the teacher’s monologue.

So the teacher is today faced with an arduous task of gaining the child’s

attention and holding this attention till the end of his lecture.

What’s true is:

It can be achieved by discretionary use of questioning techniques.

When questions are asked, the child is aware that he’s going to be asked

questions so he’s very attentive not wanting the teacher to catch him

unawares.

Questions can also help the teacher in digging into the child’s

understanding, finding out what he knows, what he does not and correcting

the wrong notions of the child.

Questions also help leave the child in a state of active participation

preventing his unconscious loss of attention while the class is on.

Whether you are a Teacher, Pastor, Lecturer, or Businessman, Public speaker etc.

you can actually make your presentation more lively if only you can appropriately

utilize the questioning technique..

is a professional home tutoring institution (nursery to A-

levels) that has been grooming teachers that help children find answers to lives’

questions rather than using the conventional lecture method that has failed

thus far….

Next week’s topic:

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