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Stimulus Variation Skills

Setting the Stage (1)

11:4 And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?

11:5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic:

11:6 But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes. … Numbers 11:4-9

Setting the Stage (2)

ب3ر1 ى ل1ن ن7ص5 ل5ت<م5 ي1ا م<وس1 3ذ5 ق< إ و1ب7ك1 اد5ع< ل1ن1ا ر1 دP ف1 ع1ل1ى1 ط1ع1امP و1اح3ض< م3ن ر5

ا ت<نب3ت< األ1 م7 ر3ج5 ل1ن1ا م3 ي<خ5ا ه1 ا و1ع1د1س3 ه1 وم3 ا و1ف< ث7آئ3ه1 ا و1ق3 ل3ه1 ب1ق5ا ل3ه1 ب1ص1 و1

And remember ye said: "O Moses! we cannot endure one kind of food (always); so beseech thy Lord for us to produce for us of what the earth groweth, -its pot-herbs, and cucumbers, Its garlic, lentils, and onions …(Quran 2v61)

Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety

Francis Bacon

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What is Stimulus Variation?This skill is concerned with the changes or

variations in teaching style to avoid boredom. Stimulus refers to an agent, action, or

condition that elicits, accelerates or rouses to physiological or psychological action, activity or response.

Variation deals with the approach of changing such stimulus to bring variety into the classroom and avoid boredom.

The skill of stimulus variation involves deliberate change in attention drawing behavior of the teacher in order to secure and sustain students’ attention to what is being taught.

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What is Stimulus Variation? (2) It is the skills to stimulate the students,

increase their active participation, enthusiasm and spirit of study.

It is a way of enhancing children learning by helping them remain attentive.

A stimulus situation that changes in different ways is one of the most powerful influences in maintaining orienting activity by the students.

A teacher must develop the skills to attract and hold the attention of students throughout the teaching.

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Making Students Attend to InstructionIntensity: A louder sound, a brighter light can

capture any one’s attention, but continuity of loudness and brightness tend to have a quick decreasing effect in attracting attention.

Contrast: Anything that contrasts with other things in the surrounding environment attracts attention.

Movement: A moving object/thing attracts attention more in comparison to stationary one.

Instructional Materials: Instructional materials are powerful to attract and hold students’ attention.

Teacher’s personal behavior: Teacher’s enthusiastic, stimulating, energetic, and expressive behaviour gets more attention than dull and monotonous one.

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Component Skills Stimulus Variation

Teacher’s movement: Varying movements within the classroom for pedagogic purpose. E.g. writing on the board, movement to the student who is responding to some question, conducting experiment, etc.

Teacher’s Gestures: Purposeful movements of the parts of the body of the teacher to communicate certain meaningful ideas to the students. These include movements of head, hand and body parts to arrest attention.

Changes in Speech Pattern Silence / Pause: This is the use of pitch in voice projection to indicate relative importance of information. These include variation in volume or accent of voice to avoid boredom.

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Component Skills Stimulus Variation (2)

Pausing: Silence by the teacher for a moment. Can attract students’ attention and increase their desire to listen. Silence can indicate that what has just been said/done is important or unacceptable.

Change in Audio-Visual Sequence: Continuous change in the sequence of using audio visual aids concentrates the attention of the pupil upon the teacher. Use visual, audio, and sometimes audio-visual materials.

Vary Methodology: Change in teaching methodology. E.g. combining use of demonstrations, group work, individual projects, dramatization, and giving students opportunities to read, write, speak, etc.

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Component Skills Stimulus Variation (3)

Variation in Questioning: Questions should be varied, from low to high order questions. Ensure you ask question at various levels. When students ask questions do not

directly answer the question, refer the question to other students.

Develop listening skill. Let the student finish his/her question first so as to give time for you to prepare for a suitable and right answer.

Do not cut off the student’s question or explanation

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Component Skills Stimulus Variation (4)

Focusing: Used to concentrate the attentions of the students on some specific point or event. Used when the teacher wants to direct the students’ attention to a particular point which they are required to observe. Focusing can be obtained through verbal communication or gesture or both. In three ways: verbal focusing (look here” listen to me”

“note it carefully” “this is very important”),

gesture focusing (pointing towards some object with fingers or underlining the important words on the board, and highlighting on the projector)

verbal and gesture focusing  (combination of both).     

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Component Skills Stimulus Variation (5)

Varying of Non-verbal Gestures: Teacher should be able to use hands, eyes, body or even clap, stamp feet as a way of maintaining pupils interest in the lesson. Over use of gestures might end up becoming a habit and then defeat the purpose of being a stimulus.

Student movement: The teacher can change the focus of  attention  by involving students in  physically  doing something, like in experiments, handling apparatus, or dramatization.

Variation in Sensory Channels: Varying the senses that students are using. Touch, see, smell, or feel. The introduction of addition sensory modes in a lesson will make the lesson interesting.

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Component Skills Stimulus Variation (6)

Oral  to  Visual; Oral-Visual Switching: Giving information to the class using oral or visual medium. Essential for the teacher to change medium to sustain students’ attention. Oral to Visual: While explaining points

one shows a model (oral to visual) and after showing the chart again start speaking (visual to oral).

Oral-Oral visual: While speaking one shows objects, charts and models and explains their various parts. It is switching from oral to oral-visual.

Visual oral – visual. The teacher shifts focus from the visual stimulus to verbal (oral), then to visual.

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Component Skills Stimulus Variation (7)

Variation in Interaction Style: Interaction style can be used as stimulus, for example teacher/student or student/student or student /teacher. Teacher-Students Interaction Style: The

teacher has a dialogue with the whole class, communicates to the students as a whole, not to individual students;

Teacher-Student Interaction Style: The teacher has a dialogue with a certain student, communicates the students as individuals;

Students-Students Interaction Style: The teacher is not involved in the students' activities; functioning as an observer, he lets the students discuss in groups.

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Flander’s Interaction Analysis Categories (FIAC)

Teacher talk

Category number Activity*Indirect influence1. Accepts feeling: Accepts and clarifies an

attitude or the feeling (positive or negative) tone of students in a non-threatening manner.

2. Praises or encourages: Praises or encourages students’ action or behavior. Jokes that release tension, but not at the expense of another individual.

3. Accepts or uses ideas of pupils: Clarifying or building or developing ideas suggested by a student and teachers extensions of pupil.

4. Asks questions: Asking question about content to procedure, based on teacher ideas, with the intent that a students will answer.

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Flander’s Interaction Analysis Categories (FIAC) - 2

Teacher talk

Category number*Direct influence5. Lecturing: Giving facts or opinions

about content or procedures; expressing his own ideas, giving his own explanation, or citing an authority other than a pupil.

6. Giving directions: Directions, commands or orders to which a pupil is expected to comply.

7. Criticising or justifying authority: Statements intended to change pupil behavior from non-acceptable to acceptable pattern; bawling someone out; stating why the teacher is doing what he is during; extreme self-reliance.

Students’ talk

Category number*Direct influence8. Pupil-talk response: Talk by pupils in

response to teacher. Teacher initiates the contact or solicits pupil statement or structures the situation. Freedom to express own ideas is limited.

9. Pupil-talk Initiation: Talk by pupils, which they initiate. Expressing own ideas; initiating a new topic; freedom to develop opinions and a line of thought, kike asking thoughtful questions; going beyond the existing structure.

Silence 10.

Silence or confusion: Pauses, short periods of confusion in which communication cannot be understood by the observer.

Flander’s Interaction Analysis Categories (FIAC) - 3

Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure

Francesco Petrarch

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Mudasiru Olalere Yusuf (PhD)

Department of Educational Technology,University of Ilorin, Nigeria

E-mail: moyusuf@unilorin.edu.ng; lereyusuf@yahoo.com;

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mudasiruoyTwittter: @moyusuf

Blog: http://wordpress.com/#!/my-blogs/

(2013)

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