Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Jo, I have really enjoyed your forum and the scenarios you have provided. Going on this forum is a new experience for me. I thought using scenarios were an interesting concept. They provided an opportunity to think and reflect before responding. Perhaps providing a few sub questions for each scenario might make it a little easier to respond. As you can see, I have come back to this site a few times and have found that I feel more comfortable responding when other people have responded first, and I have some ideas (cues) to work with. Overall, this is a great job, providing food for thought for problems I have often encountered when teaching. Good luck. Frances
This is a challenging problem. I agree with Ruth that people do not like to go first. Certainly, in my case I often wonder if what I have to say is worth posting as often, I don’t feel my opinions are particularly interesting.
Having strong discussion leads and cues certainly help to keep conversations focused and encourage reflective comments. I do not have the answer to making people participate other than providing many opportunities for people to respond and hopefully they find some topics motivating and want to respond. I think you have done this very well in your forum.
I think both the points that MHubert and Ruth made are interesting. I am a great believer in active learning and asking questions especially when topics are cognitively challenging. Questions generally require answers and therefore provide an opportunity for reflection to see if the student can answer the question. If not, unanswered questions provide the oportunity for the teacher to provide further explanation or for the student to research and find the answer. Providing an extra information session or tutorial provides the opportunity to recap and further explain and research the tricky topic. It also provides the teacher with the opportunity to see if any supplementary resources such as readings or videos need to be provided and also the chance to ask relevant questions to help guide students as well as answering questions the students have.
First, I would try to find out why the student motivation is low. If there are no clues, I would then look at the topic I am teaching, how I am delivering it and try to see if there are any improvements I could make to increase student motivation and participation. For example, do students feel supported and is the work appropriately scaffolded.
I would be looking to find ways of extending this student through enrichment activities, as mentioned, peer mentoring would be good. Another idea could be to provide an independent project that is relevant to the subject and also of interest to the student. They could then present this to the class and this adds value to the student and also to the classes knowledge.