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Effective Class Participation

Encouraging discussion sometimes means surrendering control.

Grading Participation in Discussions
Instructors often include "participation" as a grading component -- quite rightly so in some disciplines and in some courses. Deciding to do so is an individual faculty decision.

If, however, we assign a certain percentage of our grade to participation in discussion, then we should have established criteria, and students have the right to be informed of these criteria.

Without standards, we might unintentionally be swayed by our emotional reactions to student contributions. Participation is a qualitative factor, but standards can nonetheless be developed and implemented. It is our professional obligation to do so, just as we do for written assignments or examinations. (Contact the author by E-mail for an example of a grading standard for participation.)

The New Phenomenon of E-Mail Discussions
More and more faculty are using class listservs, often simply for announcements and response to questions. But, with increasing frequency, we are using this technological capacity to conduct purposeful discussion, whether between instructor and students as a whole group or among students as they engage in small group, collaborative projects.

Discussions need to be planned carefully, whether they take place in cyberspace or a physical classroom. In fact, instructor orchestration of a discussion might need to be stronger in cyberspace than in the classroom. We all know E-mail can be misunderstood, and it might be easier to "flame" in front of a computer screen than in a face-to-face setting.

The rules of participation need to be clearly laid out before turning the students loose for online discussion. There are already many horror stories on electronic discussions gone awry.

Content vs. Process Dilemma
We are constantly struggling to balance content, or the imparting of information, with what we know to be good ways of encouraging learning. As the knowledge base of every discipline expands, we cannot simply keep talking faster.

Rather, we must reach the point of realizing that we have to surrender some control, that we have to trust students to learn some information on their own. In turn, they have to accept responsibility for out-of-class learning efforts. Then, together, we can use our time in the classroom to greater advantage through discussion, as well as other active learning approaches.

The result? We enhance student learning, which is the point of students coming to college in the first place.

References and Resources

Brookfield, S. and S. Preskill. Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms. Jossey-Bass, in press.

Cases-L, a listserv on case teaching in higher education, including discussion leadership as a listserv topic.
Available on the Web at http://bestpractice.net/ cases/cases-l/cases-l.html.

Cashin, W. E., and P. C. McKnight. Improving discussions. Idea Paper No. 15. Center for Faculty Evaluation and Development, Kansas State University, 1986.
Available on the Web at www.idea.ksu.edu.

Frederick, P. The Dreaded Discussion: Ten Ways to Start. Improving College and University Teaching 29, (now called College Teaching) (1981): 109-113.

McKeachie, W. J. "Facilitating Discussion: Posing Problems, Listening, Questioning." In Teaching Tips (10th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999: 44-65.

Miller, W. R., and M. F. Miller. Handbook for College Teaching. Sautee-Nacoochee, GA: PineCrest Publications, 1997.

Neal, E. "Leading the Seminar: Graduate and Undergraduate." POD Essays on Teaching Excellence, 1996-97. A publication of The POD Network, 1996.

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