Practices for Engaging Student Learning: Classroom Observations

Abstract

Knowing what works well in University Studies—and what does not—is challenging. Classroom observation provides a unique perspective on what is happening for students in the program. What students experience and what those experiences mean to them is critical information for faculty—particularly in a new program that may upset a student’s expectations or equilibrium. In the following article the authors’ analysis of their investigations zeroes in on some of the more elusive factors which affect student learning.

Introduction

A review of the goals of University Studies, which range from critical thinking to self-discovery to a synergy between the two, reveals that it is a complex program. This presents special challenges for assessment. For Freshman Inquiry in particular, the experiences of faculty, peer mentors, and students are variously dense, multifaceted, exciting, and frustrating. Assessing these experiences requires a variety of strategies, both quantitative and qualitative. A key piece in working toward an assessment strategy has been an observational investigation of classroom practices and student learning in Freshman Inquiry. Through this investigation, we hoped to concretize our understanding of how program goals are implemented and to develop a basis for formal assessment of teaching and learning based on what was happening in this program, with these students, with this curriculum, at this university.

Drawing on ethnographic methods, Jessen and Ramette conducted over 400 hours of observation and participation in Freshman Inquiry classes and mentor sessions; they spent an additional 130 hours in faculty/mentor team meetings and private discussions with faculty. They also conducted a series of focus groups in which a total of 150 students participated (Jessen, Ramette, and Balshem, 1998). Analysis was aided by an advisory group of faculty (Balshem and others).

In this paper, we focus on our working conclusions regarding five aspects of the Freshman Inquiry model. Each of our working conclusions lays the ground for further exploration and assessment of teaching and learning.

Learning through Speaking

One of the goals of Freshman Inquiry is to encourage students to learn through speaking, that is, to participate in class discussion. We have observed that it takes time for students to “find their voice” in the larger Freshman Inquiry classroom. The mentor sessions are different. There, most students become comfortable enough to engage in dialogue and debate on controversial topics and to challenge their own and others’ beliefs. They do peer reviews on class assignments, practice their presentations, hash over challenging class or reading topics, and become more aware and accepting of their common ground and of their differences. They express doubts about their understanding of the material and share feelings or concerns about activities or discussions that have taken place in the larger classroom. They take the risk of learning in public. The following student comments are typical:

“It’s more like coming in and talking with a group of friends than it is going to a strict class where you have to shut up and listen and take notes. It’s kind of like hanging out with your friends and learning in an informal, relaxed atmosphere.”

“I think it makes you more comfortable. You can come in this room and you feel free to say whatever you want and nobody’s going to hate you because of it. It makes it easier to learn, period.”

For some students, this freedom of voice spills over into the larger classroom. For others, it does not. Some students expect that they will learn to participate more actively as part of the larger class and are disappointed when this does not happen. The following quotations from students reflect some of the difficulties that students experience:

“I don’t talk in the big class, because I’m shy. I don’t feel like it. But in the small peer mentor session, I like to talk. I know their names and I can call their names.”

“That feeling of community I don’t think is as strong in the big class as it is in the smaller peer mentor session. I have really loosened up with the peer mentor group. I even shared what my real hair color was.”

“My biggest obstacle has been all the sharing that we do in class. I don’t usually like to let other people know what I think.”

“The idea that I’m pressured to talk, I hate that.”

Clearly, we need to learn more about what does and does not work with regard to encouraging student participation in the larger Freshman Inquiry classroom.

Learning Communities

Freshman Inquiry involves professors teaching outside their areas of expertise. This opens the way for professors to learn along with their students. Many Freshman Inquiry students we spoke to commented on how much they learn from each other, through participation in a class learning community that includes students, mentors, and professors. Community in the classroom is also built through group learning, which permeates the Freshman Inquiry curriculum.

A sense of a Freshman Inquiry learning community is exemplified in the following description of one class on the effects of the gravitational pull of the moon on the earth:

At the beginning of the lesson, the instructor and peer mentor stand in front of the students, who are seated in a circle. As the lesson unfolds, the peer mentor draws diagrams on the board to help illustrate gravitational pull. As questions arise, there is one student who says, “I still don’t get it.” Another student gets up and draws more illustrations on the board to help the student understand the concept. Other questions are then generated by the group.

Several other students begin to explain the concept in different ways, citing examples and metaphors. By this time the instructor and peer mentor are seated with the students while other students are facilitating the teaching of the lesson to the student who is having difficulty understanding. Finally she says, “Oh, I get it now!”

Both physically and socially, this instructor made space in the class to allow for participatory learning, with students, mentor, and professor as participants. The following statement is a student comment on this kind of learning community:

It’s much more democratic than the authoritative, ‘I’m the teacher, you’re the students, and that’s all.’ They don’t discourage questions. They don’t discourage involvement. The students can teach the students. They guide you, but don’t butt in and say you’re not supposed to help other students.

Becoming part of the classroom learning community affords professors great opportunity to develop the compassion for student learners that Perry (1978) sees as essential.

Physical Environment

Early program planners selected furniture and design for the Freshman Inquiry classrooms that allow flexibility in how students and instructors are arranged in the room. Some instructors appear to be initially reticent about rearranging classroom furniture. Others have experimented with various arrangements. We observed that the physical set-up of the classroom did indeed have a great effect on student learning and class participation. A class where students are seated at tables or desks feels quite different from a class where students are sitting in a large circle all facing the center. In the following quotations, students discuss the circular arrangement:

“We’re all equal. Everyone’s facing each other and nobody’s in front of anybody. We can all look at each other.”

“It helps to relax the way that we’re all in a circle and no one is at the head of the class, and no one’s at the back.”

The position of the instructor has an enormous effect on the classroom. The mood of a class changes when the instructor is sitting with the students rather than standing in front of them. We observed a particularly striking example of this in one class, on a day when there had been signs of an impending snowfall and the class was unusually noisy and unsettled. The professor came into the room and, not saying a word, sat down on a chair in the middle of the room. The students immediately began to quiet down. The professor began to read a story. In less than a minute, the students were leaning forward in their seats waiting for the story to unfold. The entire mood of the class had been changed within seconds, by a professor who sat among the students, rather than standing at the head of the class.

Instructors Who “Care”

Freshman Inquiry instructors enjoy the luxury of getting to know their students well, during the year-long class. Program designers expected that this would have a positive effect on student learning, and we have observed this to be so. Students speak of their Freshman Inquiry instructors as “caring” about them. The following student comments illustrate this:

“I didn’t come to class one time and (the instructor) called my house to make sure that I was okay. In my other classes they don’t care if you come or not.”

“Our teachers make themselves available 100% of the time. Weekends, evenings, they are constantly encouraging us to get in touch with them. Our teacher even went around and called everybody to ask how one of our major papers was going. I can’t imagine any of my other professors doing that.”

“It just gets down to the fact that these professors care more about the individual students than in other classes, especially the science classes, where you know they are just weeding you out.”

Reflecting about Learning

Finally, we observed the importance of giving students time and opportunity for reflection about their learning. Students spoke of wanting time to absorb and make sense of their experiences as learners. Some spoke of having time to reflect on course content:

In this class we have more discussions about what we’ve learned in class. We tell people what we know and try to get some feedback on what we’ve learned.

Others point to self-reflection. Instructors include exercises that encourage this. In one such exercise, students were asked to complete the following sentence: “When I think of oppression, the first thing I think of is ______.” In another, the class held a “cultural sharing day,” for which students prepared a short description of their family culture and history. Self-reflection within the classroom context leads students to feel valued as individuals, as the following comments illustrate:

“The instructor tries to bring out the people who don’t speak very much, tries to get them to interact with the class. In this class I’ve noticed a really big development where there is a lot more ease in people talking. I think it has to do a lot with the professor accepting everybody for the way they are and encouraging people to speak and interact and so really shy people feel a lot more confident about talking without being ridiculed or looked down upon.”

“I felt more responsibility toward this class than any other. In other classes, I’m just a person handing in an assignment. Here, I’m a person contributing to a group or a discussion. I know that if I’m not here, I’ll be missed, because I’ve not contributed my part.”

Working Conclusions

King (1993), writing in a constructivist mode, refers to the shift in the role of the instructor, away from being the person with all the answers toward being a facilitator who “orchestrates the context, provides resources, and poses questions to stimulate students to think up their own answers” (p. 30). This theme runs through our working conclusions about teaching and learning in Freshman Inquiry. In Freshman Inquiry, we have seen professors who listen to student voices, join their students’ learning community, and move away from the front of the classroom. Our investigation suggests that in various ways, the Freshman Inquiry model successfully encourages this shift. As hoped, our observations have given program planners a more concrete understanding of how program goals and design elements play out in the classroom. Our next step is to develop an understanding of what practices take fullest advantage of the program design.

One last working conclusion about teaching and learning in Freshman Inquiry involves the impact of our own observations. For many of the classes and instructors we observed, our observations became part of the educational process. Reflecting with us on our observations, the instructors themselves gained, as one professor put it, “room to muse and question” about classroom teaching practices. Another professor comments,

I have never had anyone reflect my teaching back to me before. I am able to see things about my teaching which would otherwise go unnoticed, and I learn from this.

Students also spoke of the benefits of our presence:

It is great to have you in the class. It makes me feel like I am participating in the class and am also part of shaping it.

The faculty we worked with have come to feel that the practice of classroom observation, such as we have done, should become part of the Freshman Inquiry model itself. In two ways, then, our work is contributing to efforts within University Studies to “understand the complexities of student life . . . even as we never come to know it fully” (Magolda, 1997).