In my last post, I talked about how I used question papers to motivate my students to speak in class. Another method I’ve used in a variety of classes is to provide a list of “questions to consider” when doing readings. In this case, I provide the discussion prompts, and I expect students to write out answers to the questions before class.
This is how I have consistently taught my Psychology of Women and Gender class, which is a writing intensive class. I used to make them print out their answers and then self-grade themselves (check, check plus, check minus) both for the quality of the questions and for their verbal participation. I would then comment on each of these. Thus, the questions to consider responses were a combination of a low-stakes writing assignment and preparation for their making active contributions to class discussion.
Later in the semester, student leaders would write the questions, and I would ask them to meet with me before they led class. This was a bit hit or miss, and sometimes they missed their meeting and/or their questions were less than ideal. Nevertheless, for many years this technique was the the bread and butter of my Psychology of Women and Gender class and resulted in excellent discussion.
Of course, the pandemic changed everything. I was teaching Psych of Women when we moved to remote teaching/learning. I quickly pivoted to online discussion boards in real-time during class (I had not mastered Zoom at that time). People would post their answers to the discussion questions in real-time and respond to each other without having an actual conversation. It was an emergency accommodation, and I am glad that semester is over!
I taught Psychology of Women fully online when we went remote in a more planned way in a future semester, and I modified how I did questions to consider. Since we were on Zoom, I let them submit their answers on Canvas, and I didn’t give them written immediate feedback on their writing and speaking. Instead, I gave complete/incomplete grades on answering the questions and had them regularly self-evaluate the quality of their participation and writing in a separate assignment. This kept the answers to the questions from being too onerous to grade and encouraged self-reflection and evaluation.
Next semester (spring 2024), I am teaching Psychology of Women and Gender in person for the first time since before the pandemic. I need to decide if I will require hard-copy printing (which feels demanding after years of allowing Canvas submission) or allow students to use their laptops but have very serious guidelines about appropriate use of laptops during class.
Once the second edition is accessible in Perusall (something I’ll discuss in the future), I may switch my approach entirely! Since we are now in the second edition of our textbook (exciting!!!), I need to edit my questions to consider. Fortunately, I can use the questions under the headings and the Your Turn prompts as a starting place! Many were already based on questions we each used when teaching.
Finally, I should note that I have used questions to consider in other classes as well – but in a more informal manner. In my Personality class (which I have not taught since before the pandemic), I posted regular questions to consider and used those to guide lecture/discussion. So instead of a traditional lecture with PowerPoint slides, I would go through the questions and facilitate students in a conversation about the material. I would write notes the old fashioned way – with a dry erase pen on the board! Some of the questions were fact-based, and others were opinion-based so I would go over core content but also have discussions.
Notably, in this class (which is not writing intensive) I did not collect question responses, and I relied on conscientious students being prepared for class. They self-evaluated whether they had prepared written answers to the questions in their class participation self-assessments. One of the reasons I am hesitant to return to teaching Personality is that I worry that student motivation has waned and they will not be prepared if I teach the same way. But I think the next time I teach it I will try again. Class was always a vibrant back and forth combination of lecture and discussion and students responded really well to the format.