Over and Under Achievers

Since shifting from a traditional lecture format to active learning, I have greatly reduced the dead air that follows the probing questions. Instead, working collectively on their prompts, each group of students engages with the question or questions, often coupled with specific textual portions to examine. They must first talk among themselves and then later address the rest of their class with their response. Even the student who hasn't read or refuses to read can hear his peers discuss the material. In effect, the other students are modeling behavior that indicates that the task is something that can and should be accomplished.

Another sort of underachiever, those who have read, but who would be hesitant to draw attention to themselves in a traditional class by voluntarily answering a question, they now have the chance to contribute in the less intimidating space of the smaller groups. And, of course, as their confidence grows, they may venture to address the whole class at some point.

Understandably, these students have often gathered much of our attention in traditional classes, and often they also set the pace for the class, which may frustrate those students more adept with the material. I might have assumed in the past that these high achievers would thrive in any environment, that they were self-motivated, and that they would be my go-to question-answerers. But that probably wasn't fair to them. Now these previously underserved over-achievers have an active learning environment where they can guide their peers, contribute to the pace of the class, and appreciate getting to apply the skills and knowledge they have. And thus far, they have done this without dominating their groups, though that outcome bears vigilance and forestalling. I will occasionally insert myself into the group to ask the quieter members what they think of their prompt or of the answers being discussed.

These techniques do not always work as wonderfully as I would like them to, but I think they have been more successful at engaging the wider spectrum of preparedness across the classroom than my former traditional approach.