To disrupt traditional hierarchies, instructors can step out of the way and allow students to take center stage. But positioning students as holders and creators of knowledge can be challenging. Not all students will be comfortable stepping into these roles immediately. Instructors may therefore also proactively introduce classroom routines and activities designed to help students see themselves as knowledge creators. In his course, Timothy Patrick McCarthy uses student provocation, an activity in which a pair of students leads a single class discussion mainly through asking generative questions. The provocations allow every student to be a leader in the classroom. “Every semester,” says McCarthy, “there will be a student who hasn’t said much at all, and then the provocation gives them the opportunity to flourish. Once they do that, their confidence coming out of that is much greater.”
Step 4: Centering Students as Discussion Leaders
Instructor
Timothy Patrick McCarthy, Lecturer on History and Literature
Student Group
Undergraduate/Graduate
School
Harvard College
Course
Stories of Slavery & Freedom
Group Size
16 students
Establish formal opportunities for students to lead discussions.
Set students up for success by modeling the discussion facilitation strategies you want your students to employ.
Require discussion leaders to craft reading/discussion questions and disseminate them to students prior to the class session. They may also structure their discussion based on their classmates’ pre-work.
Scaffold facilitators’ leadership by requiring lesson plans and preliminary office hours to provide feedback and support.
An article from Review of Radical Political Economics shares methods for helping students assume more active roles in class activities by using their original thinking to shape instruction.
Building on their experiences asking students to lead discussions, Gale Rhodes and Robert Schaible put together “A User’s Manual for Student-Led Discussion,” which includes tips for both instructors and students.
Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning offers a variety of tips to help discussion leaders.
This article discusses how a Harvard College professor attempts to create a “rigorous but not frightening” experience as students take turns leading discussions.
When in your classroom do you step back to let students take center stage? What more can you do to encourage every student to take a leadership role?
What routines and activities might help students take greater ownership during discussion?
Ceding leadership to his students helps Timothy Patrick McCarthy create an equitable classroom where all students help generate knowledge. In the next video, we’ll examine how technology can help you center students as knowledge holders.