How to Make Teaching Interesting?

Lectures, particularly in Mathematics, worse still in abstract courses such as Linear Algebra, Abstract Algebra and Analysis, often create boredom to some students, especially when the lectures are delivered in two continuous sessions, or in the afternoon. However interesting the lecture is, surely there must be some students who fall asleep. In this paper we give suggestions on how to make lectures or teaching interesting. Two things that should be included are the historical aspect of certain concepts to be introduced in the lectures, and some applications of the concept in our daily life. We give an illustration of the lectures in Abstract Algebra offered by the author at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Another way of avoiding the students’ boredom is to include some mathematical humours and create a language and terminology corner. This corner can help the students in their research projects and also their theses. This corner might also be helpful to those who wish to submit their papers for publication in the local journals.