So do students. By relating the material directly to their lives and showing them how they can use it, you increase their attention and improve their learning. Encourage active learning and thinking Large lecture courses can foment passive learning and thinking, as students sit quietly waiting for instructors to spoon-feed them information. Encourage active learning through in-class demonstrations, oral participation, brief writing exercises, or any other techniques you can formulate. Occasionally, teachers foster higher order thinking in the learning process, and then assess students in ways that measure little more than rote recall.
Students quickly come to perceive higher order thinking as a useless and even cruel game.
Equally bad is to teach for rote and then assess achievement for critical thinking. It is important that your assessments reflect what you value and implement in your teaching. Formulate a clear vision of your course objectives and intended outcomes and then communicate this vision so that students know explicitly both what you hope to accomplish and what you want them to accomplish. Communicate your expectations clearly and early Students early in their college careers often have only the foggiest idea of what teachers expect. Students always appreciate clarity regarding your expectations for them.