"A Shift" in gear this academic year

Okay, here's the battle plan...

(Image from schoolmarm.org)

Gord Sellar -- published author, fellow expat, and innovative teacher -- has articulated an idea for a different approach to teaching this semester, and I think that it might work.

Let me explain.

Aside from incompetent teaching, perhaps the biggest barrier to having a successful class in Korea lies in the refusal of Korean students to speak up. Many if not most Korean students here in Korea have a tendency to remain silent during discussions or to parrot something that they've memorized beforehand.

In an effort to overcome student reticence, Gord plans to try something that he has seen at science fiction conventions:

I'm going to introduce a variation on "presentations." This might fly, it might crash, I'm not sure, but I think it's worth a try. The idea is simply stolen from SF conventions, where "panels" discuss some subject at length. Whether a panelist is an SF author, a fan, an editor, or some technical expert, everyone ends up on an even ground because the task of the panel is to come together, contribute individual thoughts and ideas to a discussion, entertain the listeners, answer questions in a thoughtful, interesting, or entertaining fashion, and fill up one hour semi-spontaneously.

This allows students to prepare in the way they're used to -- scouring Wikipedia, memorizing random bits of useful information -- but also makes it impossible for them to follow a prearranged script, since besides preparing a few questions or discussion topics individually, they'll have to grapple with questions put forth by the "moderator" (me) and the students, who will be expected to think up a few interesting questions as well. (And this kind of participation as an audience member will be tracked, too, for grades.) Since panelists will be competing, they'll all be trying hard to entertain their classmates and me, and to say something interesting, which will reduce the likelihood of them coming together and forcing through some kind of prepared presentation. And I'll be assigning the topics, so I can set the breadth to allow for focused discussion as well as general thoughts on the topic.

I've been toying with something like this myself, albeit not quite so well-thought out as what Gord suggests. I've tried lecturing to Korean students (though not for a long time), I've tried open discussion sessions (periodically, but not recently), I've tried assigning presentations (but long abandoned), and I've tried reading through a paper together with students in the classroom (more recently relinquished), but nothing seems to work very well consistently.

I'm not familiar with the method that Gord has experienced at science fiction conventions, but I think that I envision how it works, and I think that it might also prove effective in my cultural studies classes, so I may test it as the course moves along.

Before doing so, however, I'm resurrecting the discussion method for a couple of courses. At Kyung Hee University, I'm again teaching British and American culture, where I focus on the issue of multiculturalism, and at Yonsei University, I'm teaching a course on Islam, where I focus on Islamism. In both classes, I'm having the student spatially arrange themselves in a circle that includes me so that we can all face each other.

However, I'm dealing with the two courses somewhat differently.

For the Kyung Hee course, I'm assigning a text that we all read and bring to class to discuss. I've told students to come prepared to ask at least one question and to make at least one statement. They might not each have the opportunity in each discussion to ask or state what they've prepared, but at least, they'll be ready. This has sometimes worked, and I'll soon see if the students are self-motivated enough. If not, I'll move more toward what Gord is trying in assigning 'panels'.

My Yonsei students are more self-motivated, and I'm trying something radically different there in my Islamism course. Except for the first week, when we read and discussed the article "Manual for a 'Raid'" on 9/11, by Hassan Mneimneh and Kanan Makiya, I won't be assigning readings. I will offer suggestions from week to week, but I've told the students that we will define the course as we proceed. In effect, we're modeling our course on an organizational principle employed by the Islamists themselves, namely, "open-source" operations. Rather than the hierarchical classroom where I choose topics and assign readings, I'm letting the students follow up their interests within the context of Islamism. We will depend upon one another to fill in each other's gaps in knowledge, as we branch out on our own, by returning each week to report on what we've found out about ideas, personalities, movements, organizations, and so on -- and we'll make suggestions on things that others could read. I think that the students' self-motivation will enable this to succeed.

In both courses, students will be writing research papers, so these should contribute to the discussions as the course proceeds. Additionally, I intend to open a webpage for the two courses where students can post links to useful articles and ask each other questions about particular issues. My aim is to get the students more intimately involved.

I'll see how these two approaches work, though I may have to structure the coursework more if the students are not performing as I hope that they will.