Build
participation into your course design
Make participation part of the course goals and
course
grade
Build in
opportunities for participation
Schedule
student questioners/facilitators
Plan
for brief group presentations
Use
problem-based learning or other projects that encourage participation
Incorporate
techniques and technologies (see below) into the course design
Build
in opportunities for frequent feedback (see below)
Create
a safe space for discussion
Discuss
participation goals and offer participation grading guidelines
Write
a participation contract together with students
Revisit
participation goals regularly
Have
'ramping-up' discussionsÑgive frank feedback about how to improve
Inspire
good discussion
Give and
Get Feedback
Meet early and frequently with students with
special
challenges
Midterm assessment (of the class, by the
students)
Midterm participation self-assessment (of the
student, by
the student)
Assessment (by you or by students) after a
student
presentation or facilitation
III. Initiate and Sustain Quality Discussions
Get students to say something, anything, on the first day.
Get everyone on the same page at the start of each class.
Start with a good question, a provocative thesis, or two competing theses.
-Good questions are open ended, ill defined, and important. They invite authentic problem solving.
-Don't fear silence.
-Give students a minute to freewrite before or after you pose the question.
Listen to the student's response.
-If their response is poorly put, ask a clarifying question or paraphrase what you think they said. Get something good on the table, but don't yet agree or disagree.
Promote student-student response
-Don't react immediately; invite other students to respond.
-Look or move around the room while the first student is still speaking
-Invite reactions to the contribution. If none come, invite some comparisons with or connections to specific earlier contributions from other students, or to the reading.
Engage the student
-When you engage an individual student, press for explanations, examples, evidence, supporting arguments, examples, counterexamples
-Know
whether to
push, how hard to push, and when to let Ôem off the hook.