I think the fish bowl or something similar is a great idea. I found the section on procedural questions to be helpful. How you phase the question is really important. Some students are afraid to answer for fear of embrassment. We must remember that not all student are at the same intellectual level, but they are still here to learn. Fish bowl is a great idea because then they know that they will be expected to participate and it becomes more of a game.
Michael,
Probing is a good way to help the student with the response. If they appear to be stuck even with my probing, I then open the question to the class, more to help the original student than to make him/her feel bad.
Judy Mohammed
I will call a student by name to answer, but that does not stop other students from answering. I will simply and untreatningly remind them that the question was directed to a single student. I do not expect the student who was asked the question originaly to always know the answer, so if they seem to struggle I will inject info into a responce by me, but not give them the full answer. They seem to respond to the help and come up with some if not all of the answer.
Hi Thomas,
I have had the same problem. I came up with the solution of putting all of the students names in a fish bowl. I draw a name every time I answer a question. It is still random requiring each student to stay with the instruction, but they all know everyone will get a chance. When I have gone through all the names, I put them back in the bowl and start over. Hope this helps!
Alison
When it is an open question, I try to get others to respond by saying something like, "That is very good, but that is not the only answer. Almost everyone in this room could respond differently and still be right. Come on let me hear a few more"
i PLAY GAMES TO DRILL FOR EXAMS. FAMILY FEUD. THERE ARE TWO TEAMS. ONE PERSON FROM EACH TEAM COMES FORWARD AND IS GIVEN A CLOSED QUESTION. THE FIRST PERSON TO RING THE BELL GETS TO ANSWER. THEN I FOLLOW IT UP WITH A BONUS OPEN QUESTION. IT GETS QUITE COMPETITIVE! THEY ALWAYS LOVE IT. AND EVERYONE IS INVOLVED INDIVIDUALLY, AND AS A TEAM.
Students typically ALL like competition, even the shy ones. Give two or three tokens to each team member and they put one in scorebox with each correct answer/explanation. That way the more knowledgeable students cannot dominate; they only have 2 or 3 tokens and run out before the session is over.
I think, too, if you ask concept (open) questions then anyone can answer but they may not answer fixed-answer (closed) questions because they know they are incorrect.
Hello Thomas;
You’ve asked an engaging, OPEN QUESTION. :)
It is my opinion that often, the lack of participation for some students is somewhat reflective of shyness or maybe a lesser self-confidence or esteem, as it relates to their willingness to publically interface in their educational process. One way that I address this is by asking the less engaged students to give an example of how they used this concept in their personal experience. In this scenario, the less engaged student may feel more assured about answering the questions, when the information is tied to something that they feel experts about, their own lives.
Another way that I try to undertake this issue, is to acknowledge that sometimes the less engaged students may need more processing time to feel confident to answer the questions. If I believe this to be the situation, I may ask the entire class to think about two questions, but specifically ask the less engaged student in advance that I would like for them to answer the second question. One instance of this is, if we were discussing a topic, I might ask one person to elaborate on the significance of this factor in World War I, but ask the second student in advance to begin to think about how that factor influenced combat in WWII? I do realize that the student may feel pressure to listen to the first answer while thinking about what they are going to say, but if this scenario is handled with poise, it will unfold almost like a community discussion involving many of the class members.
Hi Thomas,
Getting all students to participate is a universal dilemma for instructors. At the start of classes, you can call on students to respond, using the roster and giving that student some time to respond before opening up the question to the rest of the class. This brings a consciousness that you will be asking questions and calling on people by name, so everyone should be prepared. When posing questions, ask students to raise their hands so you can select a respondent. If the same students raise their hands, ask for those who have not yet responded. You can bring the quiet or hesitant students into the discussion by choosing less intimidating questions and calling them by name. Also encourage participation by asking students to read short passages.
