How Do I Get More Students to Participate in Class?

When it comes to classroom participation, research continues to confirm what most faculty members experience each day:

• A limited number of students make the majority of contributions.
• In an observational study conducted in multiple classrooms: 
  • Only 44% of the students participated
  • 4-5 students made 89% of the comments

Although getting more students to participate is challenging, the good news is that it can be done, and it doesn’t have to involve such tactics as “cold calling” on students or resorting to a points system.

Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D., describes 18 strategies that work in this Magna 20 Minute Mentor.

During this 20 minute program, you will learn how to:

• Better encourage students who rarely participate to speak more often.
• Provide other participation opportunities, such as brief written exercises or small group discussion, to help generate contributions.
• Move beyond seeing reluctant participators as a problem.
• Limit the participation of students who speak too often.
• Find something positive to say about a first-time contribution.

The program also includes supplemental materials that feature a summary of strategies and a summary of the research on participation in college classrooms.

Learning outcomes

At the conclusion of this professional development program, you’ll be able to choose from a wide range of approaches for increasing student participation in your classes that include:

• Knowing different ways to respond with care to wrong or not very good answers to help encourage continued contributions.
• Knowing how to use something that a student has said previously and apply it in a follow-up comment or question.
• Understanding how to have students participate in different ways: by doing a problem on the board, writing key comments on the board or submitting questions by e-mail.
• Knowing how to take advantage of different opportunities to interact with students outside of class to facilitate increased classroom participation.

Order the Campus Access License and load the CD onto your institution’s internal web site for unlimited, convenient, on-demand access for all members of your campus community. Click here for more information and to see all the benefits of the Campus Access License.

TO ORDER: How Do I Get More Students to Participate in Class?
Description Price 20 Minute Mentor CD only $99 20 Minute Mentor CD w/ Campus Access License $199	Satisfaction Guaranteed If you're not completely satisfied, return your purchase within 30 days of receipt for a full refund.