David, in responding to Charlotte's suggestion that gender differences may be involved, you stated that you thought the other women students were participating in about equal proportion to their representation in class. However, I would like to encourage you to actually collect data on this. Maybe you could arrange to videotape class, or maybe you could get someone else to observe and collect data about who speaks and for how long. It might be that there is more of a gender difference in participation than you think. Spender (1989) found that even though women in an unobtrusively-taped conversation participated less than the men, both women and men thought that the most two most talkative women (with 40% and 42% of the conversation) talked too much, but they did not say the same about the two men who talked the most (60% and 58%). One interpretation is that we may have expectations about what is the right amount for men and women to participate, and that expectation may be less for women than for men. So if women DO participate equally, they are perceived as dominating the conversation. Of course, this may not be the case in your class, but it might be interesting for you to check.
Supporting Charlotte on another excellent point - please consider whether it really is a lack of critical thinking ability or an unwillingness to debate. It may be that if you can figure out another way to have class discussion WITHOUT a debate format, you might find that the student would participate more. Of course, it may be too late for this semester to make a change, as classroom norms for participation may have already been established, but it might be good to try a new format next time. In other words, might this be an instance of the fundamental attribution error? Maybe the "fault" is not in the student but in a different perception of the situation?
Reference:
Spender, D. (1989). The writing or the sex? Or, why you don't have
to read women's writing to know it's no good. New York: Pergamon
Press.
Retta
--
Retta E. Poe, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Western Kentucky University
1 Big Red Way
Bowling Green, Ky. 42101
(270) 745-4409 FAX: (270) 745-6934
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://edtech.cebs.wku.edu/~rpoe/
"Live long, and prosper!"
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
