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By Professor Steve Adams, University of Minnesota, Duluth
Article condensed (to read full article, click here)
For a long time, I was guilty of giving “shadow messages,” those
hidden communications that qualify or
contradict the overt message we intend to deliver, and that
made it difficult for me to generate active participation
in my larger classes.
While my syllabus insisted that the course would proceed
by discussions rather than lectures, and while I mentioned
active learning several times the first day of class, I always
conducted that first session without any opportunity for
participation beyond the usual, “Any questions so far?” The
students assumed – understandably – that the
stuff about discussion was empty rhetoric, the equivalent
of politicians telling us to read their lips or administrators
claiming that teaching is as important as research.
I really did want active student participation, but by the
second class, when I finally got around to inviting it, the
rules of the game were already established in the students’ minds:
he talks; we sit back and listen. It was then an uphill struggle
to change those rules and to prove that I actually did wish
and expect to hear from students. I remember reading somewhere
that students make up their minds about a course and an instructor
within the first few minutes of the first class. The initial
session is not an oil painting that we can come back to at
leisure for touching up; it is an artwork in fast-drying
plaster that needs to be shaped carefully and quickly before
the whole course sets.
Stealing ideas from various sources (including workshops
and individual consultations), I have used the following
techniques to generate active student participation from
the start, making it much easier to elicit discussion during
the rest of the course.
1. Come to the classroom before the
period begins to chat informally with students as they
arrive. Students rarely
initiate conversations with teachers, so it takes real effort
to make them comfortable talking with us formally or informally.
They often find it hard to converse even with peers whom
they don’t know. It’s a bit intimidating and
depressing for students and instructor alike to walk the
first day into a large, absolutely silent classroom. The
instructor can prevent that cold, cathedral atmosphere by
generating a relaxed conversational buzz from the start,
greeting familiar students, introducing him/herself to new
ones, and drawing students into chats with each other.
 2. Make the students realize that they count as individuals. Anonymity is one of the largest barriers to active participation.
Students who feel the teacher doesn’t know or care
about them are less likely to participate than those whom
the teacher recognizes as distinct persons with lives extending
beyond the classroom. When students arrive on day one, I
have them fill out a short questionnaire that asks for such
information as their home towns, career plans, and extracurricular
interests. This information helps me tailor the course to
individuals as we go along; it also indicates from the start
that they will be more to the instructor than an identification
number, generic student, or kid in the back row with the
funny haircut.
3. If possible, before students arrive
for the first session, arrange the classroom to encourage
and facilitate active participation. Chairs lined up in neat rows and all facing
the lectern indicate that the course is lecture-centered.
If students do participate, they address questions and comments
over the backs of their classmates’ heads to the instructor.
Try banishing the lectern to a corner and arranging the chairs
in a circle so students can see and talk with each other
during discussions. If the chairs are bolted to the floor,
wander around the room so that no one place becomes privileged
as the sole focus of class attention. If students must twist
and turn in their chairs to find the instructor, they are
more likely to address their comments to the classmates facing
them as well as to him or her.
4. Make it clear from the start that
you want and expect active participation from students,
and tell them why. Indicate
on the syllabus that a specific percentage of their grade
will reflect their contributions to class discussions. Explain
the pedagogical value of active, collaborative learning.
Remind students of the wise (fill in your favorite ethnic
group) proverb, “Tell me and I’ll forget; show
me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”
5. Start students talking several times
during the first period. Begin with an easy exercise and then progress to
more challenging levels of involvement. Going through the
syllabus at the start of class, I pause on the first page
after the comments about active participation. Here I ask
the students to introduce themselves briefly to the people
around them, just to say hello and exchange names. This gets
people speaking for the first time early on, breaks the pattern
of me doing all the talking, and starts forging the community
I want to develop in the classroom. Emphasize from the start
that students will be talking with each other, not just reciting
to the instructor. If the enrollment is small enough, have
students pair up with someone they’ve never met, chat
with that person for a few minutes, and then introduce him/her
briefly to the rest of the group.
6. Sometime after the icebreaker, propose
a substantial discussion topic for what remains of the
period. This topic
might address their knowledge of and preconceptions about
the course content. Or the topic might concern the students’ own
expectations and wishes for the class. (What knowledge and
skills do you want to receive from this course? List five
specific objectives that you hope to accomplish here by the
end.) This discussion not only generates active participation
from the start, but it also gives students a sense of owning
the course, and it provides motives for working conscientiously
during the following weeks. Since many students at this early
stage are not likely to risk exposing themselves with individual
contributions, ask them to form minigroups of twos, threes,
or fours, and together to come up with a couple of points
to contribute. They find it much easier to work quietly with
a few classmates who will share responsibility for the ideas.
After sufficient time for discussion, call the class together
again as a large group and poll each mini-group for one suggestion.
7. On this first day (and thereafter),
ask questions that call for genuine discussion, not just
right-or-wrong answers. Too often “gimmes” or “Jeopardy”-style
questions substitute for more sophisticated and useful participation.
If the instructor poses only questions with specific answers
in mind, students soon learn they aren’t really being
asked to formulate their own opinions but to guess what the
teacher wants them to say. Try open-ended discussion topics
that can be debated and that call for higher-level learning
skills.
8. Reward students for participating. Acknowledge each contribution
in some way, such as paraphrasing the point to show you are
listening and to make sure you’ve understood; by writing
the contribution on the board; or by praising a particularly
good response, especially if it’s one you’ve
not anticipated yourself. (Students get a special kick out
of teaching the teacher; in a well-conducted course such
two-way instruction should occur often.) Draw other students
into the discussion by asking them to respond to or expand
on their classmates’ comments.
9. Get to know the students by name,
starting the first day. Again, students are most apt to participate if they
are more than anonymous faces to the instructor. Because
I don’t learn or remember names easily, I spend the
last few minutes of the first session taking photos of the
students in groups of five or six. I then have them autograph
their picture so that I can memorize names and faces at leisure
and refer to my illustrated roster as needed. This technique
not only helps me learn names without needing to ask them
repeatedly or assign students to fixed seating, but it also
serves as another icebreaker for the students, who chat animatedly
with each other as they group up for the photographic ordeal.
By the end of the first class, students should know they
are expected to participate actively, and they should have
done so several times in a relaxed, nonthreatening environment.
Eliciting continued discussion in the next class sessions
will reinforce the pattern already set and will soon make
participation an easy, natural part of the course.
This participation can keep us informed about what the students
are actually learning, make them more responsible for their
own education, and increase the likelihood that we will learn
from the course ourselves.
Used with permission from Professor Steve Adams. Dr.
Adams wrote the article for the Center for Teaching and
Learning on the official University
of Minnesota web site. |
