DISCUSSION PATTERNS ONLINE Lenny Shedletsky TEACHER AND TA INFLUENCE ON UNDERGRADUATE DISCUSSION

TEACHER (or TA) INVOLVED What do you notice for a pattern?

WITH TEACHER (or TA) INVOLVED Students respond to the teacher (or TA); The teacher (or TA) responds to the student; The students rarely respond to one another;

WITHOUT TEACHER INVOLVEMENT What do you notice for a pattern? NO INTERACTION

HERE IS WHAT I NOTICE Without teacher involvement in the discussion, students either post and flee—i.e., no interaction, or: They occasionally respond to one another; Look at students responding to one another; Look at students post but do not respond to each other—where there are 2 posts, it is the teacher responding;

STUDENTS POST IN PARALLEL— they each post and flee Every post with more than 1 total post is the teacher responding

HERE ARE 2 PATTERNS THAT TEACHERS COMPLAIN ABOUT TEACHER RESPONDS TO STUDENT & STUDENT RESPONDS TO TEACHER POST and FLEE   Another unsuccessful silence exercise... Amanda Munroe 5/23/08 9:59 PM     Most Unfortunate Groupthink Kevin Benjamin 6/10/08 3:13 PM RE:Most Unfortunate Groupthink Leonard Shedletsky 6/11/08 8 RE: Most Unfortunate Groupthink Kevin Benjamin 6/12/08 5:03 PM

WITHOUT THE TEACHER (or TA)

SO WHAT IS A TEACHER TO DO? I suppose if you wish to have a Socratic dialogue, engage the individual; If you wish to have students engage one another, stay out of it, although, if the topic matters enough to them, they will get in, even with the teacher involved; When do students engage one another? An educated hunch is: When they are moved by topics that matter to them; When they need one another to complete an assignment; When they are not following the rule, “I must respond to the person with more power and status.”