The Skillful Teacher

Snowballing
Students uncomfortable with even small-group participation can be
drawn into this, and then into whole class discussion, through the
process known as Snowballing. This exercise starts with individual
solitary reflection and proceeds gradually and incrementally (if num-
bers allow) until the discussion involves the whole class. The process
begins by students individually and silently spending a couple of
minutes jotting down their thoughts about an assigned discussion
question. After this reflective beginning students then form into pairs
and spend about five minutes discussing each other’s ideas. When
the five minutes are up, each pair then joins another pair to form a
quartet. The quartet conversation opens with each pair sharing
a question they raised, a difference they noted in their conversation,
or a new insight that suggested itself. After ten minutes the quartets
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join another quartet to form octets. Again, the octets begin their
conversation with each quartet sharing a question they raised, a dif-
ference they noted, or an insight that suggested itself in their con-
versation. After twenty minutes the octets join other octets to form
groups of sixteen and again, share a question, difference, or insight.
In a class of around thirty-two, the class ends by each group of six-
teen joining the other for a final conversation. Through snowballing,
a class of thirty-two students that began with private, silent reflec-
tion ends up in a whole class discussion.
The ideas presented in this chapter, and the one preceding it,
should decrease the chances that your attempts to start a discussion
are met with a resounding silence. But no matter how carefully you
plan against this eventuality, at some time it will happen. When it
does, try to remember that silence is not always indicative of hos-
tility, confusion, or apathy. It could just as easily signal students’
need to collect their thoughts on a complicated topic before ven-
turing into speech. It could also represent a culturally induced pref-
erence for silence, or an unwillingness to be disrespectful to peers
or teachers by speaking out of turn or against a prevailing view. If
after several classes conversation remains desultory or nonexistent,
then a wider structural problem is probably manifesting itself. 
Perhaps the institutional culture and reward systems are working
against your commitment to discussion. Perhaps differences of race,
class, and gender between you and the group, or between different
group members, are generating a silence born of mutual suspicion.
Perhaps students’ past experiences have taught them that partici-
pating in discussion is a waste of time, a chance for a teacher or peer
to catch them off guard, trip them up, and put them down.
In such situations a number of different courses of action suggest
themselves. One is to confront the group with the problem (which
will emerge anyway on the anonymous classrooms CIQs) and to
seek their reactions and advice. Another is to rethink the dynam-
ics of your pedagogy and how you use discussion. Maybe you will
Getting Students to Participate in Discussion
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T
HE
S
KILLFUL
T
EACHER
take a step back and insert a number of structured conversation
exercises that can provide scaffolding, an initiation, for students
new to classroom discussion. Still another is to ask your colleagues
(perhaps by getting them to sit in on a discussion session) for their
perceptions of and advice on the situation. After you have done
these things, it is always possible that you may decide that discus-
sion has been introduced too prematurely and that you need to
explore other alternative means of instruction. What some of these
alternatives might be is considered in the next chapter.
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9
I
n contemporary American higher education, diversity is not just
a trendy buzzword but a perplexing reality. In some states a high
school diploma is all you need to get into a state college, with the
result that many schools operate virtually an open admissions policy.
For many college teachers a student body that represents a wide range
of academic diversity is now the norm, not the exception. Learners
who are barely literate sit next to those who already show a talent for
writing. Those skilled in time-management, self-organization, and
linear thought mingle with highly lateral thinkers or those with lit-
tle patience for detail. Self-directed learners co-exist with those who
are highly teacher dependent and who lose focus once tight struc-
ture is removed. Levels of motivation run the gamut from practi-
cally nonexistent to dogged determination.
Personalities also range from extrovert to introvert, intuitive to
logical. For some, identity is integrally linked to sexual orientation.
For others, ideological or spiritual commitments define who they
are. Those with disabilities—learning, physical, auditory, visual—
need to be accommodated alongside those who have no awareness
of how these might structure learning. Some people process infor-
mation best through active experimentation; others are more com-
fortable with reflective observation. Some show a preference for
learning grounded in concrete experience; others prefer abstract
conceptualization. One group of students is field independent, liking