HOW TO ENCOURAGE STUDENT PARTICIPATION

The teacher poses a question to the class and four students raise their hands to answer. They are the ones who always do. That is the best case scenario. There is also often a scenario in which no student dares to answer.

The lack of student participation in class is due to a variety of reasons. One of the most common reasons is linked to personality, as those introverted and shy students are afraid of speaking in public and avoid eye contact with the teacher, so that they remain silent during the whole class. Other reasons, also related to the previous one, is the fear of being judged or laughed at if they make a mistake. Another common reason is apathy which, in turn, can be attributed to a variety of factors ranging from boredom, lack of motivation, family or personal problems and the pace of learning, among others. Other times, lack of participation has to do with the teacher and the teaching methods they use.

To be honest, as the student I have been and still am, I fully understand and empathize with some of the reasons mentioned above and, for the same reason, I am aware of the large number of negative consequences they bring, such as passivity, conformism, stagnation in personal and educational development, fear of making decisions, poor communication skills, insecurity, etc. For all these reasons, I would like to dedicate this publication to talk about how to encourage student participation in class in order to make the classroom a space in which both students and teachers feel comfortable and enjoy themselves.

The first step is to implement active learning in the classroom. Active learning is an approach to instruction that involves actively engaging students with the course material through discussions, problem solving, decision making, case studies, role plays and other methods. Active learning approaches place a greater degree of responsibility on the learner than passive approaches such as lectures, but instructor guidance is still crucial in the active learning classroom. Active learning activities may range in length from a couple of minutes to whole class sessions or may take place over multiple class sessions.

Some active learning techniques for engaging and motivating students are:

• One minute paper: students write a 1-2 min response to an open question. This activity can be done at any time. If used at the end of class, students can write a response to provide you with feedback on their comprehension. You might ask “What is the most important thing you learned?”; “Summarize today’s lecture in one sentence”; “What questions remain?”

• In-class demonstrations: Students should be involved in the demonstration, and be required to reflect and analyze the process. For example, you can have students predict the outcome of the demonstrations individually, and then have them discuss it in groups, or with the whole class.

• Think-Pair-Share: students think about a particular question individually, then they form pairs to discuss their answers. Following this, the results are shared in a large classroom discussion.

• Short cases/ scenarios: allow students to apply the concepts learned in class to “real-life situations”. It can be as simple as posing a single question to the class, to generate a discussion about how the students would approach a given scenario/situation. It can also be extensive, and require that students conduct additional research to effectively approach the scenario.

• Brainstorming: students are asked to generate ideas on a certain topic, category or question while you facilitate and record the answers on the blackboard/whiteboard.

• Discussions: requires students to think critically, and to evaluate their own and other’s responses. Students are able to explore a diversity of perspectives, and build on each other’s knowledge and understanding of the content.

All these techniques and strategies places students as protagonists and requires them to participate, engage, and collaborate in class to drive deeper learning outcomes.

Finally, it is very important to reassure students and to create an atmosphere where they feel free to give their arguments without feeling judged or ridiculed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Queen’s University. (2017) Active Learning Strategies. https://www.queensu.ca/teachingandlearning/modules/students/22_active_learning_strategies.html

Queen’s University. (2017) What is Active Learning? https://www.queensu.ca/teachingandlearning/modules/active/04_what_is_active_learning.html