Why might students hesitate to participate in class?
Some internationally-educated students are unfortunately stereotyped as being passive or unable to contribute classroom discussion. Limited verbal participation in class can come from a variety of factors, making each student’s experience of class discussion unique. Some factors that can make students hesitant to participate in class are:
(1) Differences in roles of instructors and students across cultures. In Chinese classrooms, for example, teachers are valued as the ones disseminating knowledge. Students show respect by listening quietly and working to absorb this knowledge. Similarly, criticizing an idea put forward by an instructor, even as a part of a planned dialogue in class, may be viewed as disrespectful. [1]
(2) Challenges understanding and using English in a fast-paced exchange. Some international students have gained their English skills through structured classes that focus on grammar; these students may have excellent reading and writing skills, but limited experience using English communicatively. Other students may have been educated in English-medium schools, but nonetheless struggle to understand spoken communication in an unfamiliar dialect. For these students, strategies that allow them to reflect and prepare spoken contributions may be valuable.
In the video below, you will listen to students share classroom differences that may affect participation.
Video transcript
[Gurmanpreet] So, a typical Indian classrooms for grade 12, the teachers, there will be an in-charge teacher who will come at the first period and she or he will take the attendance and then we’ll begin with the first period. So, there was an NCERT textbook that we used to follow for the science courses the physics, chemistry, and maths. So, the teachers, they used to give lectures based on the textbook only. And there was no research involved. And there were no presentations given, and they used to mark the answers. Like for example, for question 1, you have to do this answer. So the whole class did the same answer for that question. So that was how they taught us. And we all were supposed to learn the same answer.
[Rishab] I can talk about the, like, 12th and what happened in graduation. In 12th, it was like we used to have eight classes in a day. And we used to sit in our own classroom and the teachers used to come to us, each and every class. There was a break in between. They used to give us lectures, and the lectures were only 45- minutes or 1 hour. The major difference is when you come to this university, you find out that the lectures are of three hours. So, then everything they teach us from slides that we have, electronic versions and we have to write our own stuff in university. Or in my school was we had a book that was common to all and you know, we used to write on the board, and the teacher would write on the board and we used to just copy that stuff and everybody used to write the same answers.
[Neet]So, ok, so a) a university classroom back in India is bigger. It has almost 45 to 60 students. That would be thrice the size of what we are here at KPU. And then teachers, actually, just read through the book and try and explain where an explanation is needed. And, university classrooms back in India, as far as a bachelor’s in law kind of program is concerned, we did not have much of audio-visual presentation. So, yeah, it was just books, reading from the book, reading from the barracks, the legislations, and then the teacher explaining us the concepts. That’s it.
[Tony]I had the opportunity to teach as a professor for China Communication University. The study, the whole study system in China probably will be difference between Canada, is because normally, is very serious that students vs. teachers in a university, normally the habit or behaviour from most Chinese students is that they are very serious following what the teacher is talking about. Write a lot of notes on the class. Go back to a lot of homeworks. Try to remember a lot from the textbooks. For this part, they have a chance towards the Chinese students. But compared with the education in Canada, it’s all different because here, for most courses, we will, the instructor encourages the student to share more thoughts in the class. Regarding the context of the text, or on any topic of that, encourage you to present your thoughts in the class. So that’s probably a big challenge for most Chinese students. They are not have more experience to present in the class, to share their thoughts. So that’s the difference, I think, from different system.[2]
Classroom Strategies for Facilitating Student Participation
- Consider re-framing class participation as engagement in learning, and emphasizing that students are graded based on the evidence that they contribute to their own learning and that of others. This recognizes that there other ways to demonstrate active engagement besides verbal participation in whole-class settings. Consider including activities such as forum posts, active participation in small-group tasks, and attending office hours as a part of student engagement in learning.
- Allow students to process individually or in smaller groups before sharing in the class. Think-Pair-Share activities allow a student time to process their thoughts quietly first, then to discuss with a partner or small group, and then to share with the class.
- Sharing the results of a group discussion activity can be less threatening for students that individual sharing. This can remove fear of “losing face”, as the contribution is that of a team, rather than an individual.
- Encourage students to bring pre-written questions with them to class. You might choose to have students read these aloud, or to collect these at the beginning of the class period in order to choose questions to address.
- Use poll or quiz apps that allow students to participate in a discussion or answer questions non-verbally. Options include Kahoot, Plickers, or Mentimeter. These tools also allow for effective assessment of student learning during the class period.
| Additional Resources |
| Teaching International Students: Class Participation: Recorded workshop that shares cultural considerations regarding class participation, student experiences, and instructional strategies.
Student engagement/polling tools:
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- Murdoch University. (n.d.). Working with students from Mainland China: A condensed guide for Australian lecturers. Retrieved August 22, 2017, from http://chinapostgraduates.murdoch.edu.au/ ↵
- Kwantlen Polytechnic University. (2019, February 7). Classroom Experiences. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=161&v=gim6muVLkpg ↵
