John Bantham, Management and Quantitative Methods
Trying to facilitate students’ class participation can quite often feel like herding cats. More than once, I have anticipated a lively class discussion with engaged students, eager to share their ideas and listen attentively to the ideas of their peers, only to be utterly disappointed with the way the class actually went. My students had come to class unprepared to engage in any type of discussion. Often, they had not even read the material that had been assigned, and the few that were prepared were unwilling to engage in much of a discussion. I would imagine that many of you have experienced such a class. I now employ a more fail-safe method of facilitating students’ preparation for class and their participation in class discussion. In this session, I will share my approach of using reading logs and what I call guided discussion to help ensure that students are prepared to and do engage in classroom discussion.
