The Importance of Interactive Learning In Modern Classes

The teacher is rambling on about her lecture, intense video game sounds are playing at the back of the classroom, and a few students are concealing their smartphones with their school devices and are on a long social media scroll. Another classroom is actively playing “Kahoot!”, having fun, and even learning and testing new skills! Sound familiar? Student disengagement and off-task behavior are among the hardest problems schools face worldwide.. This is due to the fact that attention spans are at an all-time low, and students want a method of learning that gives them an immersive, entertaining, and effective experience. To combat this problem of student disengagement, students need to learn interactively to keep them motivated to learn. Through the use of interactive methods and technology, teachers can augment the amount of entertainment and real learning that is in a classroom. As a result, classrooms with interactive activities maintain more focused and engaged students than classrooms without interactive learning.  

Throughout schools worldwide, there are many issues educational systems face, such as lack of interaction, low attention spans, and student disengagement. Due to a lack of interaction, the question is posed: Do interactive teaching methods keep students engaged and on topic? Naturally, classes with interactive activities are more focused and on task than classes without interactive activities. For example, 100% of students in a middle school survey unanimously believed that interactive activities are more engaging and immersive than traditional passive teaching methods (Survey). Thus, students, during interactive teaching sessions can easily focus, have more fun, and be attentive during class while the teacher is employing interactive activities. In addition, a Harvard study shows that interactive learning proliferates academic test scores and helps students learn while consuming the least time. (Anderson) Hence, interactive learning is stronger overall, as it helps students with their grades, and since it is more efficient, fewer resources and time have to be spent on teaching interactively. It even helps students learn faster than a cheetah! Furthermore, according to a set of observations based in a middle school, many classes were learning passively and lecture-based, while only a diminutive amount were learning interactively. During the observation, most classes that were learning passively with independent work were susceptible to going off task and playing computer or phone games or texting on social media instead of learning, whilst every interaction-based class had much more active participation, and more engaged students, which created a more learning-friendly environment (Observation). This evinces that interactive learning is key in some classrooms as it provides a distraction-free environment and helps more students learn and achieve a higher level of focus instead of being apathetic about their own education and abusing modern entertainment technology. 

The issue of student disengagement is hampering students’ education worldwide. Research shows that interactive learning makes it very difficult for students to go off task. Primarily, a professor from Harvard University states, “Active learning, not passive learning makes it impossible to go off task”(Anderson). This proves that interactive learning is extremely powerful against students who are disengaged, as it captivates their attention helping them focus and learn more. Next, according to an article from Mussila.com, “..when kids participate in interactive learning, they engage multiple senses at once, they aren’t just reading or listening;  they are also watching, participating, experiencing, engaging…makes it easier to retain information” (Duffy).Finally, a research paper from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Akron, states, “This system promotes active, rather than passive, learning by employing embodied cognition with interactive visual/spatial information, in which human movements could impact a lasting effect on both the short-term episodic and  long-term memories of students.”(Yun) This suggests that interactive learning makes learning very dynamic, encourages participation, and improves memory, which shows that interactive learning helps students participate in class and not miss out on key details. 

All in all, as student disengagement and lowered attention spans are threatening learning environments worldwide, interactive learning will help students learn properly and provide a more focused, engaged, and productive classroom. In conclusion, interactive learning is a great method of learning that will revolutionize schools worldwide and will help students have fun, laugh, share ideas, and learn, by actually learning. Interactive learning will help students achieve their goals more efficiently, while never having to sit through a boring lecture again.  Therefore, perhaps next time, every classroom will be playing “Kahoot!” or other interactive activities. Instead of students trying to relieve their boredom using social media or gossip, they will be racing to see who can answer the fastest. So enthusiastic teachers and proud parents, who help push our students to their academic success, lend a hand to enrich our boring old curriculum with new and amazing interactive learning!

                                                       Works Cited

Anderson, Jill. "The Benefit of Interactive Learning" ["The Benefit of Interactive Learning"]. Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, 17 Nov. 2014. Accessed 24 Jan. 2024.

Duffy, Jonathan. "The Top 6 Benefits of Interactive Learning" ["The Top 6 Benefits of Interactive Learning"]. Mussila, mussila.com/the-top-6-benefits-of-interactive-learning/#:~:text=It%27s%20been%20recognised%20that%20when,each%20other%20in%20meaningful%20ways. Accessed 12 Jan. 2024.

Yun, Yang H. "Interactive Learning to Stimulate the Brain's Visual Center and to

     Enhance Memory Retention" ["Interactive Learning to Stimulate the Brain's

     Visual Center and to Enhance Memory Retention"]. University of Akron, 2014,

     files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED557287.pdf. Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.