Magna 20 Minute Mentor: How Do I Get More Students to Participate in Class?

http://www.magnapubs.com/mentor/

When it comes to classroom participation, research continues to confirm what most faculty members experience each day: A limited number of students make the majority of contributions. In an observational study conducted in multiple classrooms, only 44% of the students participated, and 4-5 students made 89% of the comments.

Although getting more students to participate is challenging, the good news is that it can be done, and it doesn’t have to involve such tactics as “cold calling” on students or resorting to a points system. In this program, Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D., describes 18 strategies that work.

During this 20 minute program, you will learn how to:
•Better encourage students who rarely participate to speak more often.
•Provide other participation opportunities, such as brief written exercises or small group discussion, to help generate contributions.
•Move beyond seeing reluctant participators as a problem.
•Limit the participation of students who speak too often.
•Find something positive to say about a first-time contribution.

The program also includes supplemental materials that feature a summary of strategies and a summary of the research on participation in college classrooms.

Learning outcomes

At the conclusion of this program, you’ll be able to choose from a wide range of approaches for increasing student participation in your classes that include:
•Knowing different ways to respond with care to wrong or not very good answers to help encourage continued contributions.
•Knowing how to use something that a student has said previously and apply it in a follow-up comment or question.
•Understanding how to have students participate in different ways, such as by doing a problem on the board, writing key comments on the board or submitting questions by e-mail.
•Knowing how to take advantage of different opportunities to interact with students outside of class to facilitate increased classroom participation.

About the Presenter:
How Do I Get More Students to Participate in Class? is presented by Maryellen Weimer, editor of The Teaching Professor newsletter and author/editor of eight books. She is a Penn State Professor Emeritus of Teaching and Learning, and the 2005 recipient of Penn State’s Milton S. Eisenhower award for distinguished teaching. Dr. Weimer has also consulted with over 400 colleges and universities on instructional issues.

Magna 20 Minute Mentor: How Do I Get More Students to Participate in Class?