Supporting physics teaching with research-based resources

Be involved in the activity by approaching passive student groups, and gently encouraging them to participate. This has been shown to result in increased engagement (Shekhar et al. 2015). You can also listen to their conversations, “shopping” for ideas and difficulties to bring up in the large class discussion.

Use challenging, complex problems that students need each other to solve, and that are inherently interesting and motivating. Shekhar and Borrego (2016) found that when presented with a complex problem, students who had originally resisted sitting near their peers moved to a nearby group so they could discuss. A problem that requires group effort can thus lessen student resistance.

Another form of accountability is an expectation that students will speak up in the whole class discussion. Calling on students at random (“random call”) can help with accountability. There are two kinds of random call, individual and group. Some studies find that individual random call generates a sense of responsibility for speaking up and increases students’ comfort with participating in class discussions (Dallimore, Hertenstein, and Platt 2012), including female students (Eddy, Brownell, and Wenderoth 2014), but also has drawbacks. Individual random call has been found to increase students’ anxiety because of fear of negative evaluation (Cooper, Downing, and Brownell 2018). Another study found that group random call (calling on a small group of students instead of an individual) also had a positive influence on the quality of certain aspects of the groups’ conversations in anticipation of the random calling of their group (Knight, Wise, and Sieke 2016). If you want to use random call to help with accountability, consider calling on small groups of students (instead of individuals) to mitigate student anxiety, and ensure that you have a healthy classroom culture where students are respected and their ideas are valued (see How can I create a classroom community, so that students feel encouraged to engage?)

If possible, seating students in groups has been shown to facilitate discussion (Shekhar and Borrego 2016).

An alternative way of hearing student ideas, though often limited to ABCDE, is to use electronic response systems to motivate students to participate (Shekhar and Borrego 2016).

See discussion of “random call” in the section above. This has the added benefit of increasing student comfort with sharing their ideas over time (Dallimore, Hertenstein, and Platt 2012).

Some instructors toss out candy or give gold-star stickers to students who speak up in class (best if done a little tongue-in-cheek). Another great idea is to use Sticky Participation Points, where each participating student is given a post-it note that serves as extra credit or participation credit. Either way, the action rewards students explicitly for their effort, and sends the message that you value student contributions.

To increase verbal participation and give students a chance to process, wait at least 3-5 seconds for a student response after asking a question. It’s best to actively count up those seconds, as it usually feels like a long time while you’re standing quietly, not saying anything. But the wait will pay off; with additional wait time, more students volunteer answers, are willing to share when called on, and give more complete answers (Allen and Tanner 2002).

If after adequate wait time you still hear no responses, maybe students are lost. Have them think on their own for a specified amount of time (e.g., 30 seconds), and then signal them to turn to their neighbor and discuss, and then be ready to share with the whole class.

You might explicitly ask students to write out their ideas quietly as in a minute paper (perhaps requiring students to purchase a pack of index cards for this purpose). When they pass these up to you, you can scan them for the main ideas, and maybe grade for participation (Tanner 2013). Some technologies such as PollEverywhere also allow students to input text responses for anonymous display.

Assigning a reporter ensures that those less likely to volunteer will have opportunities to practice sharing their ideas (Tanner 2013). Ask groups to select the person with the darkest shirt, whose birthday is closest to today, or who has the longest hair (especially if you want to encourage female participation.) In smaller classes, you can put colored clips on students’ Name Tents, or hand out colored index cards as students enter (Tanner 2013).

Particularly in smaller classes, require each student to share a response to the question in 30 seconds or less (Tanner 2013). In a larger class, you could ask all students in a single row to share their response.

This includes responding supportively to student ideas, and being tactful in the face of student mistakes. See strategies in “How can I create a classroom community, so that students feel encouraged to engage?”