{"id":3150,"date":"2013-01-29T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T14:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/tasupport\/?p=3150"},"modified":"2021-08-13T16:32:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T20:32:19","slug":"blog-post-engaging-shy-students-in-tutorials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2013\/blog-post-engaging-shy-students-in-tutorials\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Post: Engaging Shy Students In Tutorials"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Madelaine Morrison, Department of History<\/p>\n

For many students, shyness presents a formidable obstacle to tutorial participation.\u00a0 Sitting like ducks in a hot, stuffy classroom, they must converse with peers they barely know under the watchful gaze of the beady-eyed tutorial leader who, pen in hand, scratches symbols across an inscrutable participation checklist.<\/p>\n

I have informally observed two types of shyness (frequently co-existing within the same person) to different degrees and in different proportions.\u00a0 The intellectually shy student worries about not sounding clever enough.\u00a0 For the socially shy student, the focus of the anxiety is not so much the ideas themselves but their delivery.\u00a0 He or she overwhelmingly fears the red-hot sensation of others\u2019 glances while trying to fashion an articulate response.\u00a0 Undergraduates crippled by one or both of these qualms often find it well nigh impossible to utter a word in class, no matter how assiduously they read the required material.<\/p>\n

My sympathy for the shy student stems from personal experience.\u00a0 I was a socially shy undergraduate whose only saving grace was that my desire for high marks overrode my nervousness.\u00a0 I blushed and stammered a bit at first, but ultimately earned strong participation grades.\u00a0 I know, however, that there are many out there who are not so fortunate.\u00a0 These sorts of students are all too aware they are facing a losing battle.\u00a0 This realization can all too often lead to overall frustration with a learning system which, to their minds, unfairly favours those who enjoy speaking in class.[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/sup><\/p>\n

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Reynold Redekopp and Elizabeth Bourbonniere observe that \u201ca change of time, space, anonymity, and voice\u201d can do wonders for encouraging reluctant oral participants.\u00a0 They have discovered, for instance, that several students who rarely or never speak up in class make enthusiastic, insightful contributions to alternate forums such as online discussion threads and blogs.[2]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 This is a valid point and I do recommend virtual discussions if time and resources permit.\u00a0 At the same time, we must beware of championing the internet as a single, fix-all solution.\u00a0 Letting students retreat behind the cloak of digital text is engaging them in their comfort zone.\u00a0 It is a good beginning and a good supplement to face-to-face discussion, but we are doing students no favours if we don\u2019t challenge them to venture further into unfamiliar turf.<\/p>\n

My own approach to student shyness aims to be empathetic while also recognizing that oral communication skills are critical for success in both academia and industry.\u00a0 If we can reach a happy medium between making allowances and encouraging real effort towards speaking up in class, then we will have achieved something truly worthwhile.\u00a0 After much ado, then, here my preferred method for helping shy students find their voice:<\/p>\n

1) On the first day of class, I ask shy students to identify themselves to me via email, so we can work out some sort of system of accommodation.\u00a0 To discourage freeloaders, I stress that emailing me will not result in a \u201cfree ride\u201d as regards seminar attendance or participation.\u00a0\u00a0 Rather, self-identification will simply give me some context for assessing the participation in which they do take part.
\n\"\"\u00a02) When a student writes me to let me know of a problem, I respond in the following way:<\/p>\n

-I tell them that I have made a note in my books, and will take their shyness into account when calculating the participation mark.
\n-I also inform them that they can email me a short 1-2 paragraph reflection piece before each seminar, to contribute to (but not totally replace) their oral participation mark.
\n-I explain that it is my duty as an educator to help them build their oral skills and I am able to help them in the following ways:<\/p>\n