Teaching with keywords

Hi, I’m Suksai from Siam University. Over the years I have been asked questions on how to grab or enhance students’ attention more effectively. Especially when it comes to a class where you have to teach students who haven’t had much background on the subject you are teaching. Now, let’s have a look.

In this video illustration, we suppose that I have to teach public policy to medical students. Certainly, they don’t have much background on social science or public policy. Here’s a technique that I’d like to share with you.

Using the keywords: because the keyword is a very powerful tool for any type of communication, especially for study and education. How to optimise the keywords to enhance your students’ memory. So in this case, I have three tips to share: technique one, words stress; technique two, refer to a real case study; and the last one, recap.

In this way, I’m going to show you in detail one by one how I utilise these techniques to teach the students.

Technique one: words stress. I might begin with teaching the definition of the public policy. For example, the public policy is the government action to do or not to do something. The public policy is a broad guideline for implementation, and the public policy must be executed through laws and regulation. In my lecture slide, you can see that I use different sets of colour to highlight different keywords in the public policy: the government’s actions, a broad guideline, laws and regulation.

Technique two, refer to the real case study. So in this case, I might use the case of the public policy in Thailand. For example, the Thai government imposed the speed limit policy. The Thai government imposed the public policy on drivers that they must fasten their seatbelt otherwise they will be fined, maybe up to 50 US dollars. At the same time, the government may prohibit online gambling. The Thai government may prohibit sex work. If any kind of business decided to do business in these areas, they must be considered illegal.

And the last one: the recap. You have to recap the keywords that the students should memorise and fully understand. In this case, what are they? The government’s action, a broad guideline, and must be done by laws and regulations. These are the keywords for the public policy.

I hope that this video clip will be useful and adaptable in your case as well. Good luck. Thank you very much.

Chanatip Suksai is a lecturer and researcher at Siam University.