Inquiry Resources

Support, don’t force, participation

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My inquiry into participation was inspired from my observations of “the quiet kids” – the capable, bright, but shy and introverted students in a class. My initial approach was to explore research to explain why these students do not choose to participate and also to find strategies to promote more active participation in the classroom. I was expecting to become a stronger advocate for pushing students to participate. I am surprised to say that where I am at now is somewhat the opposite. My last few posts exploring participation and assessment referenced two of a three story feature regarding participation. By chance I happened to read John Spencer’s article last, and I am extremely glad I did. Spencer eloquently summarizes my round-about feelings regarding participation, while offering excellent strategies and classroom practices that can benefit all learners – the introverts and the extroverts.

Through my inquiry exploration, I have come to the conclusion that it is entirely, 100%, okay to be one of the “quiet kids” in class. The teacher’s job is not to change the personality and demeanour of his or her students, but to help them explore their environment and find challenges within it. The teacher’s job is to give students the proper tools and guidance to help them accomplish goals and challenge themselves.

Throughout my time in the BEd program so far, the concept of equity versus equality has become a theme of our study. Spencer acknowledges that this applies to participation as well. He “requires all students to participate at some point, [but he] give[s] students the permission to decide the frequency and timing of participation”. He then also provides his more introverted students with necessary strategies and assistance to minimize their anxiety caused by participation. The most important classroom practice that he suggests is to make sure to “allow students time to prepare, and even rehearse, what they want to say”.

I am really inspired by Spencer’s suggestions and participation philosophy. Ultimately, learning is the most important goal for students and while we want students to break out of their shells, it cannot be forced or demanded of them. Teachers have to offer the same support and assistance for participation as they do for other subject areas.

Participation and assessment continued…

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Grading participation is a controversial subject of interest for many educators. Jessica Lahey writes about her journey as an educator who placed value on student participation. In Lahey’s class, “every week, students were given between one and ten points for participation, and in the final tally, it counted for less than 5 percent of their grades”. Some parents did not agree with her decision to include a section for participation. Lahey continues to discuss how her advocacy for participation pushed her to realize the difference between being an introvert and being shy. Lahey ties shyness to anxiety and stress caused by engaging in situations that require more public participation.

After an overwhelming response to an article titled, “Introverted Kids Need to Learn to Speak Up at School”, Lahey was forced into a situation that required some extreme reflection. She has since “engaged in a real effort to… ‘rethink how we understand students’ silences’”. The responses from her article made her see how participation grades can sometimes be seen as a “metaphor for the bias against introverts”.

Lahey’s journey somewhat parallels the process of my inquiry. I was not expecting to go in the direction that I am. With respect to participation, I have now begun to explore the question that Lahey asked herself: “Can students participate without speaking out loud?”

Absolutely, if there is active learning happening. Assessing participation with regards to speaking out loud, could almost be considered a synonym for assessing personality types. Looking back on my observations in classrooms, it is now starting to be clear how there is simply just different personalities in a classroom and that they are going to participate with their learning in different ways.

What about school environment and participation?

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Way back in the fall, when I decided to base my inquiry around participation, I was inspired by the quiet students in classrooms. Kate Torgovinick May asks the same question I did when I first chose this topic: “What should we do with the quiet kids?” Torgovinick May interviews Susan Cain, who advocates for introverts of all ages. Their discussion focuses on the school and classroom environment, which for the introverted child, can be a “very over-stimulating experience”. One strategy Cain suggests for helping introverted students feel more comfortable is to “build quiet time into the school day”.

Caine also discusses what she envisions schools in the future could look like, and how rethinking school structure could help introverted students. Cain “imagin[es] spaces that are more flexible so at any given moment, you can choose: Do I want to be in a solo space? Do I want to be in a small group space? Do I want to be in a more crowded, lively space?”. In my observations, I have been able to view spaces like the one Cain describes. These less traditional spaces help promote community among grade groups and create open and flexible learning spaces, as opposed to typical classrooms. In these types of environments students exercise the exact type of choice that Cain mentions. As a Teacher Candidate, I have found these environments quite intimidating. It is the polar opposite of my own schooling. I do appreciate however, that these types of environments can allow for more seamless technology integration in schools. IPads and computers are easily integrated across all grades in an efficient and educational way. Technology is used to promote student participation and engagement with learning; it is a normalized tool for learning.

Cain also discusses using technology – more specifically, apps that promote discussion – for promoting class wide participation. Plickers, which I have mentioned in previous postings, accomplish Cain’s ideas regarding participation and technology.

Over the last few steps of my research into participation, I have been realizing that I am going in somewhat the opposite direction that I was expecting to. Initially, I came into this looking for strategies to promote active participation from the quieter students in a classroom. I am now starting to see how as long as student learning can be shown, how the learning is presented is not as important as I previously thought. Cain’s belief in student choice creates opportunities. Offering different platforms, whether it is through a class blog or working in small groups, creates opportunities for students who are more introverted to find their own right way for them to participate with their learning.

What about participation assessment?

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One area I have yet to look into, is assessing participation. I have seen some rubrics include a section for participation, and even in my own courses, a significant percentage of my grade is reserved for evaluating participation. In their exploration of participation, Klein and Riordan, who educate teacher candidates at Montclair State University, express their concern for evaluating student learning in terms of their active participation in class. They write that “including participation into a grade that is intended to reflect evidence of learning results in a murky understanding of students’ achievement”. Klein and Riordan advocate for keeping participation separate from learning assessment as it avoids “penalize[ing] the quite, introverted student, who might be listening and creating space for thinking and reflection”. If a student is doing his or her work, and doing it well, he or she should not be penalized for not expressing their learning in an outgoing, extroverted way.

Participation Penalizes Quiet Learners

Types of Goals and Participation

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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.

Engagement and Game-based Play: Is there a relationship?

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impact_of_game_based_learning

Games are a key component of a classroom. Whether they are used in centres for imaginative play, or as a tool for learning math concepts, calling something a game makes the learning objective less obvious and increases the fun factor.  Hsieh, Lin, and Hou (2015) examined engagement patterns in game-based learning environments, which were defined as “provid[ing] sufficient challenges, immediate and clear feedback, and playable experiences to increase students’ engagement in the learning process” (p. 336). The authors looked at gender differences in the relationship between engagement and game-based learning. This study focused on electronic games as tools for learning. Students’s engagement and participation was evaluated through verbal and non-verbal cues, such as body language and facial expression.

The study found that “males were more involved in the game task and had greater engagement in exploratory behaviours than females” (Hsieh, Lin, and Hou, 2014, p. 345). They also made inferences in regards to females comfort with technology. This study offers and interesting cultural perspective, as it takes place in Taiwan. Students were not interviewed, which could potentially have yielded contradictory results, such as in Skinner, Kindermann, and Furrer’s 2009 study where “students reported that they were more behaviorally engaged than teachers judged them to be” (p. 517).

Hsieh, Y., Lin, Y., & Hou, H. (2015). Exploring elementary-school students’ engagement patterns in a game-based learning environment. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 18(2), 336-348.

Skinner, E. A., Kindermann, T. A., & Furrer, C. J. (2009). A motivational perspective on engagement and disaffection: Conceptualization and assessment of children’s behavioral and emotional participation in academic activities in the classroom. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 69(3), 493-525.

What strategies help participation?

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As students, we have all lived in fear that our teacher would randomly call on us to participate. Random participation can create fear and anxiety for many students in a classroom. Maddie Witter created a list of strategies for teachers to help promote student participation that are more democratic, stress-free, and promote a comfortable classroom environment. Listed below are summaries of her six suggestions. It is also important to note that her suggestions are influenced from educational research as well as her own practice.

  1. Three seconds – wait longer to allow more time for students to come up with answers to questions.
  2. Pre-planned questions – give students the tools they need before whole class discussion. Group students with the same question together to build a collaborative understanding.
  3. Anonymous questioning – Witter uses online assessment and participation tools here. Unfortunately one of her links (Infuse Learning) is shutting down – which is unfortunate as it looks quite interesting, but I think Fresh Grade and Plickers would apply here as well.
  4. Choice questions – Witter comments how broad, open-ended questions can sometimes be intimidating for students. She suggests incorporating either/or questions as well, which offer choice but aren’t too intimidating.
  5. Snowball to Avalanche – this is a great idea for how to incorporate kinaesthetic learning into a classroom. One student’s comment starts off as a “snowflake”, if students find they agree with the “snowflake” they move over and become a “snowball”. Eventually – if the initial question was intriguing enough, there will be more “snowballs” that can try and persuade more people to join them, thus creating an “avalanche”.
  6. Estimation line-up – give students a scale and when you ask a question have them place themselves on the scale (agree → disagree). Then when the students have found their place, fold the line in half and have the students discuss with each other why they put themselves in that spot. 

These strategies for participation are intriguing. They could be modified and adapted to fit the needs of different classes. They aren’t one size fits all tools to throw in a teacher’s back pocket, but foundation of inspiration for how to mix it up in a class to increase participation in learning.

Source: Beyond Q + A: Six Strategies That Motivate ALL Students to Participate

“Participation-as-learning”

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One of the recurring themes in research regarding classroom participation is group work and group dialogue. Kovalainen and Kumpulainen (2005) examine a single class that strongly emphasizes “learning-as-participation” (p. 214). They examined interactions in math, science, and a philosophy based lessons. Teacher-student interactions were broken down into Teacher Initiated (TI), and then Student Initiated (SI). These were then further broken down into how the student or teacher was participating, such as defining, information seeking, and sharing evidence.

It was found that TI was more common than SI interactions, but SI interactions still made up a large portion of classroom communication. One interesting finding was how “the sharing of personal experiences was not salient in whole-class interaction sequences in which the teacher also participated” (p. 236). It would make sense that students would be more reluctant to share personal details or stories about themselves in front of the whole class. When the class does bring the groups back together, whole class participation is supported in a meaningful way. When students are not paying attention when another student is speaking, the teacher asked the one student to “hold on for a while and asks the other students themselves to recall the rules of participating in the joint discussion” (p. 229), instead of just telling the students to be quiet. This practice reinforces proper group participation skills.

Kovalainen and Kumpulainen’s work shows where different types of participation are present and how it is important for classrooms to be social learning spaces . Learning does not need to be “a purely individual endeavour” (p. 214).

Source: Kovalainen, M., & Kumpulainen, K. (2005). The discursive practice of participation in an elementary classroom community. Instructional Science, 33, 213-250.

How do you measure engagement?

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One of the most common discussions around engagement in the research I have encountered is: How do you measure engagement? Goldspink and Foster (2013) explored this issue in their research. Their goal was to come up with a comprehensive and valid scale for measuring student engagement. They broke down measuring engagement into three categories:

  1. Student behaviour – measured through observation.
  2. Affect: reasons for observed behaviour – measured by answers to questionnaires*.
  3. Cognition: what the learner thinks about the situation and how deeply the student feels he or engaged with their learning – measured by answers to questionnaires*.

Goldspink and Foster also incorporated the idea of flow into their research, which they defined as “the experience of total immersion in an activity because of the intrinsic rewards it offers” (2013, p. 293).  This idea of flow strongly ties to their points on how engagement and well-being, which they defined as “happiness and satisfaction… and social functioning” (p. 302) are closely related. They found strong relationships between certain variables and levels of engagement, such as prior knowledge and relatedness.

It is important to note that in their work, Goldspink and Foster allowed students to reflect on their own engagement. Other studies that I have examined relied entirely on observable behaviour, which led to discrepant conclusions where students felt they were more engaged than the teachers perceived them to be. Using student reflection as a measure of engagement offers more concrete, inclusive results.

*Questionnaires consisted of multiple choice and open-ended questions.

Source: Goldspink, C., & Foster, M. (2013). A conceptual model and set of instruments for measuring student engagement in learning. Cambridge Journal of Education, 43(3), 291-311.

Do students believe they are engaged?

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As I continue to explore the literature on engaged and participatory learning in elementary schools, I am continuously finding new ways to elaborate and deepen my understanding of these concepts. Skinner, Kindermann, and Furrer (2009) highlighted and explained the difference between emotional engagement and behavioral engagement. Until this point, I have been more focused on physical engagement with learning, such as having the confidence to raise one’s hand, asking for help in class, and body language. Engagement with learning can be shown in much subtler ways. How do students respond to the statements “I try hard to do well in school,” concerning behavioural engagement, or “I enjoy learning new things in class,” which relates to emotional engagement (Skinner, Kindermann, & Furrer, 2009, p. 519-520). These are two very different to examine engagement than what I have previously been exploring. Differentiating between these two types of engagement is important because, although they are distinct from one another, they are also quite dependent on one another.

At the other end of the engagement spectrum is what Skinner, Kindermann, and Furrer (2009) describe as “disaffection” (p. 495). A student demonstrating behavioural disaffection would identify with the statement “In class, I do just enough to get by” and a student displaying emotional disaffection would relate to the statement “When I’m in class I feel bad” (Skinner, Kindermann, and Furrer, 2009, p. 520). Their research presented two very interesting findings in regards to the types of engagement and disaffection. “Students reported that they were more behaviourally engaged than teachers judged them to be, and teachers underestimated student emotional disaffection relative to students’ actual feelings” (Skinner, Kindermann, and Furrer, 2009, p. 517). I find the first conclusion regarding behavioural engagement quite interesting. I feel that this applies to those quiet participants in a classroom. It also goes against what I was expecting to uncover in throughout my inquiry process in regards to participatory learning. Until this point, I had been looking for ways to break students out of their shells so that I, as the teacher, can see that they are actively participating in their learning, but what if the student believes he or she is participating and is enjoying the work, but it is not blatantly obvious. Is it the teacher’s responsibility to create extroverted, outgoing, and active learners? Active, yes. Extroverted and outgoing? Maybe not. The students mentioned in the study believed themselves to be more engaged than the teachers were perceiving them to be. I do think educators should push students to be their best possible selves, but after reading this article, it is clear that that is different for each student. Ultimately, learning is the goal, and if a student chooses to do that quietly and more independently, maybe that is okay too. Students need to feel safe with their learning environment and also aware that the support will be there when they begin to reach new and unfamiliar territory. Being engaged and participating in learning looks different from student to student, and students should feel safe and comfortable with how they choose to learn.

Source: Skinner, E. A., Kindermann, T. A., & Furrer, C. J. (2009;2008;). A motivational perspective on engagement and disaffection: Conceptualization and assessment of children’s behavioral and emotional participation in academic activities in the classroom. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 69(3), 493-525.