Enriching Engagement
Written by Kelly Fodel
MAE 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 7 (September)
College students generally pay close attention to the teachings of their professors. After all, it is the instructor who will relay important information, test students on their understanding of material and ultimately issue a student’s grade in the course. However, students can also benefit from interacting with, and learning from, their peers in the classroom as this type of engagement exposes students to diverse opinions that may encourage them to see a situation from a different viewpoint. At the very least, these discussions facilitate intellectual dialogue and enhance the value of education.
Face-to-Face Interaction
“Classroom discussion is crucial for so many reasons. First, an interactive classroom is so much more engaging and interesting than a classroom that relies strictly on lectures from a professor,” said Beth Walker, professor and chair of the Marketing Department at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. “When interaction among students is encouraged, each student is forced to become a more active participant in his or her own learning. As a result, deeper learning occurs as students think about what they might offer to add to the discussion. Second, especially when students have some work experience under their belts, students can learn a lot from each other, especially regarding current business practices and business issues.”
Engaging students enhances class discussion and a student’s education in general. “Students have a lot to share—the instructor does not have a monopoly on all the good ideas and information. Encouraging students to share what they know and what they think with each other broadens the educational experience for everyone. Students who challenge another’s viewpoint force their peers to think more critically about the topic at hand,” said Phil McNair, vice president of strategic initiatives and faculty member at the American Military University. Though faculty are experts in their fields, the richness that students can add to the classroom experience is invaluable. Discussion enhances critical thinking, for through discussion concepts and ideas cannot be accepted at face value; as a result, nuances regarding practices and approaches are uncovered.
Professors may benefit from lively discussion as well, and not just because they get a break from hours of lecture! “When the class is engaged, for the faculty member, teaching is much more enjoyable. In addition to reflecting that students are interested in the topic at hand, faculty learn a lot from their students. Great discussion motivates faculty to be even better in the classroom. Faculty feel engaged when they know that their students are engaged,” explained Walker. McNair agreed, noting that, “Faculty often report that they learn as much from their students as their students do from them. A good discussion keeps the instructor on his toes—students expect the faculty ‘expert’ to weigh in and provide informed guidance and facilitation. Keeping a discussion on track to ensure that students are focused on appropriate learning objectives is one of the instructor’s primary responsibilities.”
Most classroom experiences represent a blend of discussion and lecture. Some lecture material is necessary for providing the foundation of knowledge required to engage in a discussion. In fact, depending on the subject matter, some classes require extensive coverage of core concepts that cannot be learned simply through discussion. However, especially for longer classes, too much lecture can result in students growing disinterested and disengaged. For those classes that require extensive lecture because the subject is complex and does not lend itself to discussion, time spent in teams or groups to work on problems is one way to add interest to the classroom experience.
At the W.P. Carey School of Business, discussions are facilitated in many ways. Case discussions are probably the most common approach to stimulating an interactive classroom environment. Here, students are asked to discuss courses of action for solving an actual business issue. In addition to case discussion, students are often asked in class to assemble in teams to discuss an issue or to prepare a presentation. Two-person teams can be asked to meet and propose an approach to a business issue that is later discussed with the class as a whole. Finally, as a project outside of the class, individuals or teams of students may be asked to prepare a perspective on a business issue and present the perspective to the class for discussion.
At the Tulane University School of Medicine, team-based learning (TBL) is a common practice. For about three years, the school has been replacing traditional lectures with teambased learning courses that take place in a classroom filled with small tables seating six students each. According to Keith Brannon, assistant director at the Tulane University Office of Public Relations, “The room also features 15 large LCD flat-screens and two smart boards. Instead of listening to a lecture, students learn the course material either on their own or in teams and then use class time to assess what they have learned. When students enter the team-based learning center for a class, they take an individual quiz on the assigned readings. Next, each group discusses their quiz responses and they try to reach agreement on the best answers to each question.” The groups then turn to exploring a complex series of case studies, most of which have no clear correct answers. Spirited table talk ensues, with some participants checking Internet resources to verify answers.
A key part of TBL is that the student must make the effort to learn the information during his or her personal time before coming to class. This allows for class time previously devoted to lectures to be used to reinforce learning, apply knowledge in a practical way, and clarify questions that arise. TBL appears to be enhancing student learning at Tulane, and subject exam scores at Tulane have risen in classes that employ TBL. Today, the second- year curriculum at Tulane includes an average of one TBL module per week.
Despite the obvious benefits, peer discussion does come with challenges and main issues include student and faculty resistance. For the student who is inclined to memorize information and regurgitate that information on exams, peer discussions may be unpopular. Students may also feel reluctant to evaluate their peers. As for the professors, some faculty see peer discussion as a great opportunity while others prefer to stick to their traditional methods. Often, educators must work together to encourage each other and come up with ideas and methods that encourage group discussion and learning.
“Typically, discussion is more challenging in larger classes where students may feel like they are competing with too many others to add a comment. In smaller classes, each student is more accountable to the classroom experience and to each other. While not all students enjoy participating in class discussion, it is important to create an environment where even the student who is the most hesitant to share will ultimately feel comfortable engaging in discussion over time,” said Walker.
For students who are hesitant to participate in classroom discussion, the faculty member might encourage their engagement by letting the student know in advance to prepare an answer to a question that will be discussed with the class.
Meaningful Virtual Engagement
With the popularity of online classes growing steadily, especially for the military student, peer discussions are vital to the educational process. “Interestingly, for online classes discussion is perhaps even more important than in face-to-face classrooms,” Walker said. “In online learning environments it is easier for a student to feel disconnected from the faculty member and from the other students in the classroom than it is in a face-to-face learning environment. In online environments, however, discussion can be just as rich. In fact, when conducted properly, discussion can be even more meaningful in online classes because students tend to be more thoughtful in terms of their comments than in a face-to-face class.”
McNair, too, considers the discussions for online courses to be rich and well thoughtout. “In an asynchronous classroom like we use at AMU, discussion topics are generally posted at the beginning of each week, and students log in and post their response to the topic and their responses to others during the week, depending on their own schedules. Because they can take their time and research their answer before they post it, and write carefully using a word processor’s grammar and spell-checking features, the quality of discussions can be quite good; often better than in a face-to-face classroom where discussions take place in the moment and students talk spontaneously.”
To facilitate online discussion, the professor can post questions on a discussion board and ask—or even require—students to respond to the questions and to each other’s comments. Similar to a discussion of a business case, the faculty member can post follow-up questions to deepen the level of the discussion. In addition, especially for large classes, students can discuss cases or assignments in their teams to develop a position or answer, which is then shared with the class as a whole. Finally, because of the emergence of sophisticated technology to host meetings, in addition to online discussion boards, team discussions can take place via WebEx, Skype and Adobe Connect, for instance.
While it is important for the instructor to remain engaged and have a presence in the online forum, McNair explained that AMU instructors aim to create an open forum and strive for balance. “The instructor will usually jump in and participate from time to time to guide the direction of the conversation, comment on a student’s posting, or add some things for students to think about, but he will usually be careful not to engage too frequently and stifle the discussion with too much oversight. Allowing the students to contribute freely encourages them to be honest and more thoughtful about what they want to say.”
As more and more schools adopt peer discussion as a way to stimulate classroom engagement and move past using the lecture as a passive learning format, students should remember that this is just training for the real world. After all, most work environments require collaboration, teamwork and group discussions to get the job done. Having the opportunity to flex your teamwork muscles in the college setting is just a dress rehearsal for the real thing! ♦