Teaching innovations keep students engaged in Ramadhan

Observer

23-03-2025

While Ramadhan is a period of faith and community bonding, it is also a time when one's daily routine substantially changes, with more focus on nighttime activities and a changed eating pattern.
This impacts college and university students, who often find it challenging to stay focused in class. Keeping up their motivation requires innovation and experimentation.
No two classrooms are the same, and recognising this difference is the key to a successful teaching session. While there are a number of tips for students to stay focused and motivated in Ramadhan, there are fewer suggestions for teachers on ways to ensure student engagement. This is especially true in institutions of higher education where the rules for attendance and preparation are less restrictive.
At any time of the year, keeping students engaged is imperative but challenging. In Ramadhan, students' capacity to focus may be altered, so teachers need to find ways of keeping their interest and commitment to learning alive.
An important suggestion often given by universities world wide is to focus less on texts in the class and shift to more student-led activities. While the content may remain the same, changing teaching methods to web-based games like Kahoot or Quizlet will increase student interest and retain their engagement.
Pacing the class work can also help as students find it challenging to work with a lot of content in a shorter class period, or at a time when their concentration is not at its optimum.
Ideally, this adjustment should happen when planning for the new semester, but in the case that it is not, alterations can be made without compromising on the final course outcomes.
Planning these changes ahead of time is important as, ideally, a typical course should have the same components at any given time. Ensuring that the academic year or semester is well planned will result in coverage of content while also allowing for certain times when the tempo could differ.
Certain strategies like increased collaborative work, project-based learning and peer teaching could all add to more effective learning at a time when there may be a deficit in attention.
Collaborative learning offers an opportunity for students to prepare within a class time in a scenario where not everybody is prepared ahead of time. Splitting content would ensure that students are learning from each other.
Similarly, focusing on a specific project would not only help students to apply their knowledge, but also create opportunities to look up digital sources, watch videos and apply this knowledge to solve a real-world problem. The satisfaction of addressing authentic scenarios would further motivate learners.
Peer teaching is another strategy to keep the attention of students on a given task. Listening to each other and being made to comment or critique others' ideas helps to retain attention span and increase focus.
These are not, of course, strategies limited to teaching in Ramadhan. Student-centred teaching has to be the norm, but Ramadhan is a unique time when such teaching techniques can be implemented successfully.