Rethinking Classroom Participation

Within the classroom, feelings of alienation can adversely affect students’ ability to speak, and thus serve to reproduce social inequities. This is especially the case with some first year students who may not have had many opportunities to speak, as well as students from different cultures where talking in class may not be the norm. To help mitigate power imbalances, it is necessary to develop a diversity of teaching practices and approaches to learning to ensure that each student feels that her class participation counts. In this workshop, I want to consider ways in which it is possible to encourage participation by incorporating verbalization and vocalization techniques into the classroom