By Devon Atchison, June 25, 2009 in Pedagogy and Teaching
During a recent presentation on teaching the Millennial generation, I took part in a discussion about contemporary students' unwillingness to disagree and debate with their peers. I have found two different strategies, in case anyone is experiencing this problem and looking for ways to perhaps "fix" it, that have helped my students move away from being uncritical and unwilling to engage in a robust conversation.
The first strategy is having the students participate in an historical debate. For a Modern American History course, for example, I have had students conduct a debate on Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism. Half of the class takes on the persona of the Imperialists (so someone in their group would represent Teddy Roosevelt, another would represent US banks, etc.), while the other half of the class becomes the Anti-Imperialists (Mark Twain, Samuel Gompers, etc.). The students read primary and secondary sources to help them better understand their positions; they also dress up as much as they want to in order to get into character on the day of the debate. An entire class period is spent in character, with both sides following the standard rules of a formal debate. The students get used to debating in the classroom and using evidence to back up their points; but they get used to this debating in character so they don't feel as if they are offending one of their peers (instead they feel they're stickin' it to Mark Twain!).
The second strategy is having the students participate in periodic "Discussion Days," which also helps students get comfortable talking about evidence, making arguments and talking in front of the class. I hold three Discussion Days per semester, each covering four chapters from their primary source reader (comprising about 35-40 primary source documents for each Discussion Day. The students have already written 2 page essays on each chapter, ensuring that everyone has done the reading well in advance!). I split the class into 4 different groups, each group responsible for preparing questions for 1 chapter. Each group gets together for 15 minutes and prepares 3 questions to ask the class about their chapter—they are told in advance that the questions need to provoke discussion (can't be yes or no answers), they need to directly reference the documents in question, and they can't be "what-if" questions (like, "What would have happened to Reconstruction if Lincoln had not been assassinated?"). After the 15 minutes are up, each group goes to the front for about 12 minutes each. The group members ask their 3 questions and the rest of the class is responsible for providing meaningful responses to the questions; students can also touch on points made by other participants if they wish. Each student receives points for their participation in the discussion and receives no points if they do not participate; I also remind them throughout the discussion that they need to participate to receive points. Discussion Days allow the students to think about the readings that they’ve already written about and I've found that students, accordingly, do better on their essay exams and are more comfortable with their peers and speaking and debating in the classroom.
Gabriel Martinez on Jun 25, 2009 at 9:29 am
This is really cool! I'm tempted to use the "dress up" strategy next week.