The Skillful Teacher

Talking Isn’t Cool
In some student groups the culture of cool is so strong that breaking
it by speaking seriously in a discussion means losing friends and sta-
tus. Students who belong to such groups sense that the price of talk-
ing authentically is an irretrievable loss of face in front of peers. This
culture can be so ingrained in some students that there is often little
a teacher can do to overcome it. However, three steps are worth con-
sidering. First, allowing students to make their comments through 
e-mail may persuade them that the privacy this affords allows them
to contribute to the conversation without destroying their image.
Uncool behavior is behavior that leaves you looking like a teacher’s
favorite in front of your peers. If the physical presence of peers is
replaced by an electronic presence, the group norms regarding what
is cool may be less influential. Second, you can try to include on the
alumni panel of former students that are brought in at the start of a
course some members who are, by general consensus, cool. This pre-
sumes, of course, that you are so plugged into campus culture that you
know who these people are. The presence of these students does a lot
to assure new students that talking doesn’t blow one’s cool.
Third, teachers can make clear that the ultimate price students
might pay for their coolness is failing. If you truly believe that stu-
dents who never speak are in some way in dereliction of their
responsibilities as discussion group members, then you need to make
that fact clear early in the course and repeat that message regularly.
Getting Students to Participate in Discussion
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KILLFUL
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EACHER
You can provide a midterm review of students’ performance or some
interim evaluations of their progress that make clear to them the
consequences of not contributing. By telling students early in a
course that if this were the end of the term they would fail because
they have never spoken in discussion, you bring home to them the
consequences of their silence. Of course, students may choose to
continue to stay out of discussions. But at least they can’t turn round
at the end of the course and complain that they didn’t know you
meant it when you said that participating in discussions was neces-
sary for a passing grade.