We’ve all been there. We pose a question to the class and we hope that someone will volunteer an answer or an opinion, but more often than we’d like, our attempts to get students to participate in class are met with students avoiding eye contact and awkward silences. So how can we, as instructors, motivate undergraduate STEM students to participate in class? Here are some methods that could prove successful in increasing student participation in your classrooms.Providing a grade incentive
At the beginning of the semester tell your students that their participation in class is going to be graded and provide them with the class participation rubric. This will set the participation expectations for your class early on and the rubric can serve as a guide that your student can follow to achieve the level of participation that is being required of them.Have students evaluate their participation
After the first few weeks of class, have your students grade their own levels of participation using the rubric that you provided them with and have them turn in their evaluations for feedback. This gives you the opportunity to let the students know whether or not you agree with their self-evaluations and provide them with suggestions on what they should improve on or what they should continue doing.Structure your class to have student-centered discussions
Provide your students with a scientific paper that is relevant to the learning objective of the lesson. The students are expected to read the paper prior to coming to class, giving them enough time to collect background information and formulate their thoughts prior to the discussion. You as the instructor will act as the facilitator, providing the students with opening, core and closing questions that encourage more than one possible answer. It is the students’ responsibility to keep the discussion going and to address their peers instead of the instructor. Your main job is to listen, keep the discussion on track and to provide the students with a safe, respectful environment. At the end of the discussion, summarize all the discussion points and address any misconceptions that you noted. Finally, bring the purpose of the discussion back to the “big picture” and the learning goals of the lesson. It might even be useful to assign the students a writing assignment in which you ask them to summarize the discussion as well as compare and contrast their and understanding of the topic, pre and post discussion.
Create a safe environment
Lastly, it is essential that you provide the students with a safe and supportive environment. Students are more likely to participate in class if they feel comfortable with the instructor and they know that they won’t be made fun of or made to feel unintelligent if they don’t provide you with the correct answer. Since volunteering to participate might come as a difficult task for some students, make sure to respond in a manner that communicates that you appreciate their efforts while also being honest about whether or not their answer is correct. The classroom environment you create as an instructor can greatly dictate levels of student participation.
Resources
- Hale, Michael S., and Elizabeth A. City. “The Fundamentals of Facilitating of Facilitation.” The Teacher′s Guide to Leading Student-Centered Discussions: Talking About Texts in the Classroom, 2006.
- Faculty Focus Special Report: Tips for Encouraging Student Participation in Classroom Discussions
Daniela Gutierrez-Muñoz is a first-year microbiology PhD student in Dr. Heather Bean’s lab at Arizona State University. She has experience being a teaching assistant for MIC 302 and is currently a TA for 206. This post was written for the BIO530 Scientific Teaching course.
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