The Guide to Teaching
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Creating the Classroom Atmosphere
Author: ShankmanK <ShankmanK@Mac.Ripon.EDU>
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 1997 06:49:25 -0400
I have some low-tech approaches to creating a classroom atmosphere that encourages participation. I know that some of these things might sound like touchy-feely nonsense, but in my experience they work.
The biggest single thing that I have done that has increased open participation, especially in my larger classes (this is relative; we're a small college, so when I talk large class I mean approximately 35 students) is to make sure that every student knows every other student's name. Whenever we're going to discuss something, I first break them into small groups (I randomize the group assignments so that the same people don't end up in the same group. I like to use offbeat criteria--people who prefer grapes to strawberries would be in one group; people wearing stripes in another, etc.--it lends a certain level of informality to the group formation process, doesn't take any longer than having people count by sixes or whatever other process you could come up with, and, since I come up with new categories every day it really does insure that the groups are different--and unpredictable--every time); before they begin discussing the issue, they have to make sure that everyone in their group can name everyone else.
I started doing this about 4 years ago, and the level of participation, the quality of participation, and the engagement on issues rather than emotion has noticeably improved (before I started this process, I once had a student try and spit on another student during class discussion, and I also may be the only teacher in the history of the world who almost had a fist-fight break out--I literally had to get between these two guys and separate them--over the electoral college).
My other suggestion is somewhat higher tech, although a more organized person could use the library reserve room instead of a web page--I assemble links to materials on the issues we are going to discuss on a class web page (you can check it out at http://WWW.Ripon.EDU/Faculty/shankmank/default.html). The students are assigned to permanent groups of 3 or 4 at the begining of the semester, and each week they have to discuss these issues (I provide discussion questions to guide their initial discussions; I also require them to rotate jobs--discussion leader, note taker and report writer--on a weekly basis and keep a log of their meetings) outside of class time, and turn in a written summary of their discussion.
This really provides a basis for a good and serious discussion in class, since in their small groups they have already identified issues that they want to resolve. It also provides a basis of factual material on which the whole class can draw, rather than making things up as they go along, which is a problem I have had in the past. So, to summarize, I'd say using small groups--both in and out of class--as a preliminary to a larger discussion, making sure the students see each other as individuals, and providing a basis of factual information that everyone in the class has access to are key, in my opinion, to creating an atmosphere in which free and fruitful discussion can take place.
--Kim Shankman, Ripon College shankmank@mac.ripon.edu
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