Burke, M. (Michael)

Classroom participation

To grade participation, or not to grade participation, that is the question.

Well, the question may sound quite pompous but the answer is ultimately simple: class participation should be graded. Where to start? Well, make a rubric that is specific for that particular class. There are many out there to get inspired by looking both on the web and in textbooks. What your rubric will look like will depend on what you are doing, how many students there are in your class, etc. Tailor your rubrics. Do not reuse them. Make them unique. Importantly, do not make them too rigid. Be fair. Be open. Be clear. Show it to your students. Focus on quality of student input, not the quantity of it. ‘Empty vessels make the most noise’ or so the adage claims. Allow a space at the start of the course for your students to pose questions about the participation rubric that you have generated. Encourage critical questions. Let them also have input on the final version. ‘If they make it, then they’ll own it’ or so the saying goes. Explain what you have done and why you have done it. Admit that grading participation is a subjective process. Point out the obvious, namely, that you are not objective because you are not a machine. Let them have access to the rubric at all times via the university digital learning environment. Explain to them the importance of engaging in a critical dialogue and how speaking and thinking about something in a group in a classroom setting almost always leads to better and more robust memorization and retrieval strategies than just listening to a teacher drone on and on about a subject. Learning is not about knowledge per se. It is about critically informed debate and dialogue. The ‘teacher as performer’ is a redundant concept. The student as active leaner is all that counts.

Ceteris paribus, it is important that a student takes control of his/her own learning, that he/she arrives for class fully prepared and that he/she engages continually in a critical dialogue with (a) his/her peers, (b) the textbook, (c) the lecturer, and, (d) where possible, (silently) with themselves. That input is serious stuff and, as such, warrants a serious grade. The comments of such a student in the group should consistently advance the level of discussion and learning and the session as a whole, and the other students in that session, should have benefitted significantly from the active presence of a specific individual on a given day. Request of your students that they ask themselves a confrontational question, namely, “was the session better today because I turned up?” If the answer is no, which it often will be, then they need to do more to deserve a higher participation grade.
And what is our main job as teachers in all this? … Well, that’s the easy part: we inspire our students by telling them that not only can they take control of their learning in an active learning classroom setting, but that we expect them to do it. It is imperative that they do so. Teachers are in the learning business, not the entertainment business. The sooner students come to accept this truth, the better. We then facilitate that learning experience by putting them in charge and taking a backseat, which might mean leaving the classroom and enjoying a cup of coffee outside in the corridor for a short while. Splendid. Make mine a double espresso.

Michael Burke – Professor of Rhetoric – University College Roosevelt (Middelburg)