Print Edition: March 5, 2014
Dear Editor,
As a former undergraduate overachiever, I empathize with Katie Stobbart’s dream (I’ll give you a hand, but I’m not going to carry you, February 26, 2014). Her secret fantasy is a classroom where the professor groups students by how engaged they are, rather than lumping strong students with weak students to pull those weak students along.
After almost five years of teaching at the post-secondary level, including over three in the Communications program here at UFV, I have some news for you, Ms. Stobbart. You’re absolutely right.
Perhaps my first experiment with the method of grouping high participation students together and putting low participation students in other groups came as an emotional response to my undergraduate experience, much like the one you’ve expressed. However, I’ve noticed a lot of benefits from taking this approach, both with traditional and online classes.
First, the strong students thrive and receive the intellectual engagement for which they are thirsting. That’s what you’re mostly after, it sounds like.
But there’s a fortunate surprise in this method, too. When low participation students are grouped together, they quickly realize that there’s nobody to lean on. Instead of coasting, they begin with a conversation where their group realizes that none of them are prepared for the task at hand and then they go through the steps of trying to come up with a solution. Even if it’s not immediately of high quality, they contribute more and learn more than they would have by coasting on the strengths of high participation students.
There’s another benefit of this method, too. Low participation students start participating more. They start asking questions because they need to and because they start valuing the process of being engaged. Formerly low participation students start pulling up some of the more reluctant in the crowd and I often finish with a classroom where the number of low participation students has dwindled and the number of high participation students has grown.
At first, there are some growing pains in using this process. But more importantly, there’s growing.
Sam Schechter, Instructor Communications Department University of the Fraser Valley
