What Do You Mean By Participation?
10% for Class Participation. What does that mean? Is it referring to class attendance? Do irrelevant comments count towards it? What if there are many conversation monopolisers in the tutorial? Is the class environment and types of students considered when evaluating a student’s 10%? Do the amazing thoughts in the student’s head which are silenced by shyness and intimidation count for the ? All students have ideas they want to share. Verbalizing them to an audience is the tough part.
The two biggest obstacles which prevent me from speaking in class are 1) Not knowing what to say and how to participate and 2) Fearing that what I have to say is not good enough. Both these fears are rooted in not knowing the appropriate way to participate to get the 10% and fearing the judgment of others. Taking too long to articulate a thought only to find out that the class has moved on. I always find myself worrying that my thoughts are not as good as the thoughts of other more vocal students. There are things you can do as a T.A or Professor to calm these fears.
The following are possible remedies for these two causes of low class participation:
The two biggest obstacles which prevent me from speaking in class are 1) Not knowing what to say and how to participate and 2) Fearing that what I have to say is not good enough. Both these fears are rooted in not knowing the appropriate way to participate to get the 10% and fearing the judgment of others. Taking too long to articulate a thought only to find out that the class has moved on. I always find myself worrying that my thoughts are not as good as the thoughts of other more vocal students. There are things you can do as a T.A or Professor to calm these fears.
The following are possible remedies for these two causes of low class participation:
- Providing students with a rubric outlining expectations and guidelines for class participation. Such a rubric can outline:
- What kind of comments are encouraged (textual observations, questions etc.)
- The weighting of class attendance and class participation in the
- Different ways to participate in class (journals on Blackboard, reading passages etc.)
- What each student should prepare before the class for discussion
This way students know how to prepare for discussion; and so, will have more confidence in sharing their thoughts. - Reading Questions
- Providing students with a list of reading questions to guide their reading of texts and help them make valuable textual observations
- One problem professors often make with reading questions is making them too difficult. Students do not have the time to comprehend both the reading questions and the text.
Reading questions should aim to:- Help the student summarize the text
- Create an equal ground of understanding of the text among the students from which they can ask questions and reach further levels of analysis
- Help them ask the right questions not give them the answers.
- Breaking down the otherness in the room by encouraging interaction (not competition) between peers.
- Non-physical icebreakers in smaller classes always help breakdown the otherness regardless of how “cheesy” or “elementary” they seem.
- Creating platforms to facilitate student discussion outside the classroom (Blackboard discussion application, optional tutorials, attending course union events as a group etc.)
- Open Space Technology