Over the course of my inquiry research, different types of participation has been discussed. Turner and Patrick (2004) comment on participatory work habits and look beyond verbal and active participation. They acknowledge less obvious ways of being an active learner, which include “watching, listening, and thinking” (p. 1760).  The study only uses more obvious and measurable displays of participation, but Turner and Patrick acknowledge that participation extends beyond what can be easily measured.

Turner and Patrick discuss the difference between a classroom focused on mastery goals and one focused on performance goals and how they affect student participation. One interesting observation was “when students had difficulty, the teacher urged them to try harder, apparently not considering that lack of understanding, rather than effort, could be the reason” (p. 1771), which relates to learning the concepts to apply them as opposed to learning how to do well on a test. They found that structuring pedagogy to support mastery goals proves to have a stronger, more positive impact on student participation.

Source: Turner, J.C. & Patrick, H. (2004). Motivational influences on student participation in classroom learning activities. Teachers College Record, 106, 1759-1785.