Methods
To explore the question, "How can I structure classroom discussions to ensure equitable participation?” I have closely examined discussions in the classes that I teach. In particular, I have held frequent Harkness discussions and then carefully examined student involvement in the conversations and how students feel about these conversations. I have interviewed focus students, surveyed entire classes, and given students frequent exit cards that allowed them to express their thoughts and feelings about specific Harkness moments. I have also carefully studied how students interact with each other during these moments.
Harkness teaching and its successes during each class tend to be very subjective. What might have seemed to me to have been a good discussion could have been disastrous for some students. They might have felt like the topic was not to their liking, or that certain students were monopolizing talk time at the table, or that their opinions were not validated by the group. As a result it has been, and continues to be, vital that I carefully use the opinions of students in my data collection process both before and after a Harkness discussion to ensure that equitable Harkness moments are available to all students. A large part of my study has focused on gender as it relates to classroom participation. As a result it was important that I chose my interview participants carefully so as best understand how boys and girls experience my class and to achieve my broader goal of more equitable participation. For the purposes of this study, I ultimately decided to focus on one of my 10th grade World History classes. Doing so allowed me to carefully analyze the experiences of individual students in one class and to more easily determine how to alter my methods for encouraging student participation.
Data Collection:
I used student surveys as a way of collecting data from whole classes. I surveyed my 10th grade classes to see how their opinions differed about the same Harkness discussion. Although my study focused primarily on collecting data from my 10th grade History class, I also surveyed my 7th grade class because I was curious about differences in student approaches to the Harkness style of teaching between middle and high school students. Responses to surveys given in the first month of school were used to assist in my selection of my focus students for later interviews. I used surveys and exit cards as a way to supplement the data that I collected during my student interviews. The use of surveys was ongoing but was most useful when given directly after a Harkness discussion. Survey questions differed from my interview questions in that they tended to focus on issues such as feelings about Harkness instruction as well as attitudes towards Harkness teaching, as well as the comfort levels of students around the table. I felt that these questions would receive better answers in a written survey than if they were asked in a panel type interview. A survey question that I used early on in the data collection process is the following:
Circle the number that best describes your level of comfort with verbal participation in this class.
1) Terrified. I’ll never do it
2) Wary. Only if I have rehearsed the comment in my head beforehand
3) Somewhat comfortable. I’ll do it, but only if I think that it will improve my grade in the class
4) Very comfortable. It’s like talking to my friends at lunch
I also used short exit cards after each Harkness discussion. These cards asked students specific questions on how the discussion had progressed and the cards were a vital, and quick way of gathering student information after each discussion. Exit cards were also used to gather information on informal classroom discussions.
I used interviews of students as one of my major sources of data for this research project. Interviews allowed me insight into how they, the students, felt about Harkness and our class discussions, their own areas for improvement, and also my ability as a teacher to facilitate a Harkness conversation during lesson time. Interviews also allowed me insight into ideas for how to make discussions better and more equitable. I interviewed students often to attempt to determine if the methods that I implemented in class had a positive effect on student participation. Examples of the type of interview questions I asked are the following: Tell me about a time that you embarrassed yourself around the Harkness table. Do you think that being involved in Harkness teaching has made an improvement to your schooling at PRS? Why or why not? I interviewed students individually and also in larger groups to best understand student attitudes towards Harkness teaching in my classroom. I mainly focused on interviewing six different students individually who were in my 10th grade History class and who represented a range from high, middle, and low Harkness discussion contributors. I chose these students in our second month of school once we had sufficient Harkness discussions to determine how students participated. Interviewing students in this way gave me a sufficient range of data on how and why students either contributed or didn’t contribute during class time. I interviewed both male and female students in each of the above categories to ensure that I collected sufficient data to satisfy my study on gender differences.
Because it is so difficult to remember exactly what took place during a Harkness discussion I also videotaped entire discussions. The videos went a long way towards helping me gauge student involvement in the discussion. During the facilitation of a Harkness discussion it is easy to just follow where the conversation is taking place, but more difficult to determine student engagement of those individuals who are not speaking. The use of video allowed me to have insight into parts of a Harkness discussion that I usually missed during the actual event.
I also used conversation maps in my collection of data, noting how many times students spoke in class, and where most of the discussion was taking place. One or more students were tasked with creating the maps as the discussions unfolded. As the year went on, students took ownership of creating the conversation maps and the maps eventually become sophisticated enough to keep track of not just who spoke during the discussion, but also who built on another person’s idea, who asked probing questions, who interrupted, and who took notes during the Harkness. These maps were a great source of information, allowing me to compare discussion patterns across different Harkness discussions and to analyze shifts in participations. Conversation maps were a large help with my examination of how gender affected participation as they tracked the participation of each gender.
Data Analysis:
I used exit cards after each Harkness discussion. These cards asked students specific questions on how the discussion had progressed and the cards were a vital, and quick way of gathering student information after each discussion. Exit cards were also used to gather information on informal classroom discussions. Interviews were perhaps the most important part of my research. Student perception of my implemented strategies was so important because, after all it was the students whose experiences I wanted to understand and therefore their opinions were what mattered most. Reponses to my interview questions were used in particular to understand differences in gender, and how these differences related to participation. I created summary logs of each interview which were effective in having me quickly access data for my study. I compared different student responses to the same question to track the development of any themes.
Close analysis of any video taken during a Harkness discussion was vital to this study. Studying the videos allowed me to discover many unnoticed parts of a Harkness discussion. After each Harkness discussion, I watched the video and made notes about what I was seeing. The notes tended to focus on overall student engagement, students' reactions to other students in the discussion, and to anything said at the Harkness table. During the Harkness, my attention tended to immediately shift to the new speaker. Watching the videos allowed me to take notes of students reactions to comments as well as who was engaged, but not actually speaking. This allowed me to further my research on what actually determines student participation in a classroom. Video also assisted me in my analysis of the different genders and how they operated at the Harkness table. In particular, I was interested in seeing if I, as a facilitator, gave preference to one gender over another during a discussion, and if my efforts to improve participation seemed successful. As my research progressed, I continued to look back over the notes that I had taken while watching the video to see if I noticed changes or trends in who was participating, how they participated, and general levels of engagement.
Conversation maps told me where the conversation was centered and how different students were participating. Conversation maps were also a great resource that was used to determine which students I should interview after a particular Harkness discussion. I kept the same focus students for the duration of the study to ensure that my collected data would explore deeply how different students were responding to my efforts and strategies for building more equitable participation. If I wanted to focus the interview on a particular Harkness, a map allowed me to know which students spoke often, which did not, and how they contributed to the conversation. I also used the maps to compare student perception of a discussion, versus what really happened by comparing them to a video of the same conversation. Finally, maps were a simple way of gathering data on the frequency of verbal participation of the different genders. By studying the conversation maps over time it become apparent if my methods to increase student participation at the Harkness table were actually working. Mapping a conversation allowed me the luxury of not just seeing my progress as a facilitator in the class, but if the maps were complex enough, they allowed me to see the impact of my methods on individual students.
Pre and post Harkness exit cards allowed me access to information from students who, either didn’t participate, or were too nervous to speak truthfully during an interview. I focused carefully on the survey responses from those students who didn’t generally participate in Harkness discussions. By analyzing their responses it became important in helping me support equitable student participation around the Harkness table. I analyzed the survey data by having students write their survey responses on a blog that I created specifically for this project. The blog was only viewable by students in the class. As all students were able to view each other’s responses on the blog I am not certain about how this affected how they responded or how this affected future Harkness discussions. Their survey responses were easy to utilize because they were all stored and organized by date and conversation on the blog page. The blog allowed students to take the survey for homework and as a result did not disrupt instruction time. I also used Google forms for some surveys and the students took these surveys in class on their laptops. The survey results were then easily transformed into charts and graphs for each question which provided me with lots of data to analyze and dissect. I analyzed exit cards responses by simply comparing student responses to each question. The exit card responses were tallied up and divided into different sections and then placed in Google forms along with my survey results. I also compared the results of the exit cards with initial surveys to see if there were shifts in how students were feeling. Refer to the appendices for examples of survey and exit card questions.
Harkness teaching and its successes during each class tend to be very subjective. What might have seemed to me to have been a good discussion could have been disastrous for some students. They might have felt like the topic was not to their liking, or that certain students were monopolizing talk time at the table, or that their opinions were not validated by the group. As a result it has been, and continues to be, vital that I carefully use the opinions of students in my data collection process both before and after a Harkness discussion to ensure that equitable Harkness moments are available to all students. A large part of my study has focused on gender as it relates to classroom participation. As a result it was important that I chose my interview participants carefully so as best understand how boys and girls experience my class and to achieve my broader goal of more equitable participation. For the purposes of this study, I ultimately decided to focus on one of my 10th grade World History classes. Doing so allowed me to carefully analyze the experiences of individual students in one class and to more easily determine how to alter my methods for encouraging student participation.
Data Collection:
I used student surveys as a way of collecting data from whole classes. I surveyed my 10th grade classes to see how their opinions differed about the same Harkness discussion. Although my study focused primarily on collecting data from my 10th grade History class, I also surveyed my 7th grade class because I was curious about differences in student approaches to the Harkness style of teaching between middle and high school students. Responses to surveys given in the first month of school were used to assist in my selection of my focus students for later interviews. I used surveys and exit cards as a way to supplement the data that I collected during my student interviews. The use of surveys was ongoing but was most useful when given directly after a Harkness discussion. Survey questions differed from my interview questions in that they tended to focus on issues such as feelings about Harkness instruction as well as attitudes towards Harkness teaching, as well as the comfort levels of students around the table. I felt that these questions would receive better answers in a written survey than if they were asked in a panel type interview. A survey question that I used early on in the data collection process is the following:
Circle the number that best describes your level of comfort with verbal participation in this class.
1) Terrified. I’ll never do it
2) Wary. Only if I have rehearsed the comment in my head beforehand
3) Somewhat comfortable. I’ll do it, but only if I think that it will improve my grade in the class
4) Very comfortable. It’s like talking to my friends at lunch
I also used short exit cards after each Harkness discussion. These cards asked students specific questions on how the discussion had progressed and the cards were a vital, and quick way of gathering student information after each discussion. Exit cards were also used to gather information on informal classroom discussions.
I used interviews of students as one of my major sources of data for this research project. Interviews allowed me insight into how they, the students, felt about Harkness and our class discussions, their own areas for improvement, and also my ability as a teacher to facilitate a Harkness conversation during lesson time. Interviews also allowed me insight into ideas for how to make discussions better and more equitable. I interviewed students often to attempt to determine if the methods that I implemented in class had a positive effect on student participation. Examples of the type of interview questions I asked are the following: Tell me about a time that you embarrassed yourself around the Harkness table. Do you think that being involved in Harkness teaching has made an improvement to your schooling at PRS? Why or why not? I interviewed students individually and also in larger groups to best understand student attitudes towards Harkness teaching in my classroom. I mainly focused on interviewing six different students individually who were in my 10th grade History class and who represented a range from high, middle, and low Harkness discussion contributors. I chose these students in our second month of school once we had sufficient Harkness discussions to determine how students participated. Interviewing students in this way gave me a sufficient range of data on how and why students either contributed or didn’t contribute during class time. I interviewed both male and female students in each of the above categories to ensure that I collected sufficient data to satisfy my study on gender differences.
Because it is so difficult to remember exactly what took place during a Harkness discussion I also videotaped entire discussions. The videos went a long way towards helping me gauge student involvement in the discussion. During the facilitation of a Harkness discussion it is easy to just follow where the conversation is taking place, but more difficult to determine student engagement of those individuals who are not speaking. The use of video allowed me to have insight into parts of a Harkness discussion that I usually missed during the actual event.
I also used conversation maps in my collection of data, noting how many times students spoke in class, and where most of the discussion was taking place. One or more students were tasked with creating the maps as the discussions unfolded. As the year went on, students took ownership of creating the conversation maps and the maps eventually become sophisticated enough to keep track of not just who spoke during the discussion, but also who built on another person’s idea, who asked probing questions, who interrupted, and who took notes during the Harkness. These maps were a great source of information, allowing me to compare discussion patterns across different Harkness discussions and to analyze shifts in participations. Conversation maps were a large help with my examination of how gender affected participation as they tracked the participation of each gender.
Data Analysis:
I used exit cards after each Harkness discussion. These cards asked students specific questions on how the discussion had progressed and the cards were a vital, and quick way of gathering student information after each discussion. Exit cards were also used to gather information on informal classroom discussions. Interviews were perhaps the most important part of my research. Student perception of my implemented strategies was so important because, after all it was the students whose experiences I wanted to understand and therefore their opinions were what mattered most. Reponses to my interview questions were used in particular to understand differences in gender, and how these differences related to participation. I created summary logs of each interview which were effective in having me quickly access data for my study. I compared different student responses to the same question to track the development of any themes.
Close analysis of any video taken during a Harkness discussion was vital to this study. Studying the videos allowed me to discover many unnoticed parts of a Harkness discussion. After each Harkness discussion, I watched the video and made notes about what I was seeing. The notes tended to focus on overall student engagement, students' reactions to other students in the discussion, and to anything said at the Harkness table. During the Harkness, my attention tended to immediately shift to the new speaker. Watching the videos allowed me to take notes of students reactions to comments as well as who was engaged, but not actually speaking. This allowed me to further my research on what actually determines student participation in a classroom. Video also assisted me in my analysis of the different genders and how they operated at the Harkness table. In particular, I was interested in seeing if I, as a facilitator, gave preference to one gender over another during a discussion, and if my efforts to improve participation seemed successful. As my research progressed, I continued to look back over the notes that I had taken while watching the video to see if I noticed changes or trends in who was participating, how they participated, and general levels of engagement.
Conversation maps told me where the conversation was centered and how different students were participating. Conversation maps were also a great resource that was used to determine which students I should interview after a particular Harkness discussion. I kept the same focus students for the duration of the study to ensure that my collected data would explore deeply how different students were responding to my efforts and strategies for building more equitable participation. If I wanted to focus the interview on a particular Harkness, a map allowed me to know which students spoke often, which did not, and how they contributed to the conversation. I also used the maps to compare student perception of a discussion, versus what really happened by comparing them to a video of the same conversation. Finally, maps were a simple way of gathering data on the frequency of verbal participation of the different genders. By studying the conversation maps over time it become apparent if my methods to increase student participation at the Harkness table were actually working. Mapping a conversation allowed me the luxury of not just seeing my progress as a facilitator in the class, but if the maps were complex enough, they allowed me to see the impact of my methods on individual students.
Pre and post Harkness exit cards allowed me access to information from students who, either didn’t participate, or were too nervous to speak truthfully during an interview. I focused carefully on the survey responses from those students who didn’t generally participate in Harkness discussions. By analyzing their responses it became important in helping me support equitable student participation around the Harkness table. I analyzed the survey data by having students write their survey responses on a blog that I created specifically for this project. The blog was only viewable by students in the class. As all students were able to view each other’s responses on the blog I am not certain about how this affected how they responded or how this affected future Harkness discussions. Their survey responses were easy to utilize because they were all stored and organized by date and conversation on the blog page. The blog allowed students to take the survey for homework and as a result did not disrupt instruction time. I also used Google forms for some surveys and the students took these surveys in class on their laptops. The survey results were then easily transformed into charts and graphs for each question which provided me with lots of data to analyze and dissect. I analyzed exit cards responses by simply comparing student responses to each question. The exit card responses were tallied up and divided into different sections and then placed in Google forms along with my survey results. I also compared the results of the exit cards with initial surveys to see if there were shifts in how students were feeling. Refer to the appendices for examples of survey and exit card questions.