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Forced Participation Research Paper

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Graded participation and cold-calling students is a common tactic teachers use to generate more participation. But is it really beneficial for everyone? Many student learn in different ways that do not involve the pressure of speaking a certain amount of time or being put on the spot. When students are required to speak a certain amount of times, more stress is created for the student rather than active learning. Although teachers may mean well by attempting a more active learning environment, this learning can be lost as students feel obligated to say something. According to a study led by John Waite, a Professor of Media at the University of Colorado Boulder, 70 percent of students reported feeling classroom apprehension on a regular basis …show more content…

Compared to only 50 learning through discussion, it is clear there are more beneficial ways a lot of students learn better with. It needs to be recognized that vocal participation between teacher and student is not the only way to actively participate. Others simply need to focus their energy on listening, others need to focus on creating notes that fit their learning style better. By cultivating forced participation, many students feel obligated to participate not to learn, but to get points. This can make the answers received not thought-out or sincere. In order, to receive meaningful answers from students it is important to allow them to listen and absorb first. A thoughtful answer is meant to take time and when these type of responses are received, it will benefit the entire class. By doing this, teachers are encouraging the level of beneficial conversation to be brought down. When students know that saying something is part of their grade, they will say meaningless comments just to get points in the gradebook. When a student willingly participates in a no-stake situation, they tend to also be more confident in their answer as

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