I hope the following ideas can be of use to youth ministries, family devotionals, family counselors, and family home evenings.
This weekend I attended a stock investment course which had several presenters. Also, during the summer, I attended several speech presentations by a company called 3 elements. One key attribute, I noticed in that the presenter prompt for audience participation. For example, a lawyer giving a presentation asked a question and then said “yes or no?” The audience would respond with the appropriate answer.
I can see how causing audiences to respond can accomplish several goals in a classroom setting. Here are some of my ideas:
- It keeps the audience more engaged in the presentation when they participate.
- Getting a verbal response buys audience agreement. It creates little emotional investments and agreements of the audience to the statements made by the presenter. A salesman will get his potential client to agree with him in small issues during a conversation so that he or she will be more likely to give a positive response when making the actual sale.
- In Sunday school. I’ve seen instructors start to quote a famous Scripture or famous quote. They will begin the Scripture and let the class finish it. This is useful because it makes the audience members feel good when they know an answer.
- Audience response also helps the presenter monitor the engagement level of those listening.
- A lot of times, verbally repeating a statement can make it more memorable and add emphasis to a statement.
- Teachers use questions to the students to see if they understand the concepts are being taught.
- Another advantage is it can help someone better understand a principle through repetition. If one person in the group is not catching a certain concept, and they hear others repeat the answer, that may help the concept click in their mind. Some people learn better through sensory stimulation and the audio response may strengthen that form of learning.
These are just a few ideas as to why instructors may prompt the audience for participation. If you some ideas on this topic please feel free to share it. Thank you.
