Notes from the 4/14/04 Faculty Roundtable "There's (at least) one in every class Encouraging student participation and dealing with the overzealous."

A. Making it easier for students to participate:

1. Before calling on them, have then write something out in response to a question.

2. Think-pair-and share technique. Have them think about a question, share it with person sitting next to them, and then response to question. Can describe answer given by other person in the pair.

3. 2-minute question: At end of class have them respond to 2 questions: "What was the most important thing you learned today. What was the most important unanswered question that you have today." Then use these to foster discussion in subsequent class meeting.

4. e-mail questions to students ahead of time

5. Use food rewards (e.g., candy) - serves to wake people of and get them interested

6. Avoid trivial questions, e.g., yes/no type, or details from reading.

7. Connect discussion with their lives, especially at the beginning

8. Hand-raise responses: e.g., "How many agree? How many disagree? How many of you are too shy to raise your hands?" Gives practice in hand-raising.

9. Before class, have students e-mail responses to a questions. Select the best ones. In class ask who sent them, and then ask them to elaborate on their response.

10. Have students write answer to a question, scramble them, and have other students read aloud the response.

B. Discussion of value of taking class time for student discussion. That was seen as worthwhile, and better support for learning than on-going lecture. Student discussion also improves with practice over the quarter. They have a chance to "try on" material.

C. Grading on class participation - couple of faculty indicated that criterion was whether or not they knew the student. Tell the students that at the beginning. Both said that about 10% of course grade was based on participation.

1. Ways of getting to know students. Some take photos and then memorize names. Other encourage attendance at office hours, or e-mail.

2. However, e-mail is getting to be a problem -- trivial contact and expectation of immediate response were becoming burdensome.

Suggestions:

a. Discourage use of e-mail.

b. Use list to answer frequently-asked questions

c. Set time boundaries -- e.g., will respond within 24 hours, or will not accept questions about the exam after a specific time.

D. Dealing with the overzealous - solutions:

1. Statements such as "How about hearing from some of the rest of you," or from those who "haven't participated yet."

2. Establish a system of calling on people in different regions of the room.

3. Setting up groups and getting a cross-section of participation.

Barbara Sommer
Instructional Programs Coordinator
Teaching Resources Center UC Davis