I read the article “Embracing the silence: introverted learning and the online classroom” (Harris, 2022) from the set reading list. The article gives an important provocation on admitting the introverted learning preference, and acknowledging that not all students are super-skilled at speed-thinking and oratory. It prompted me, the reader, to rethink the notion of active participation.
I read this article right before I received the observation feedback from John, who has signposted me for oratory strategies in the classroom. Therefore, my thoughts when reflecting on this article mostly centred around my delivery in class, including sharing questions with the class, allowing for a muted breakout for contemplation or working, and working with class dynamics. And they all centred around the topic of embracing silence (not necessarily in online sessions, but also for in-person sessions):
Pausing and Leaving Blank for Contemplation
One thing I noticed about my delivery was that I asked a question in class. Sometimes, I rushed for utterances to fill the silence. I noticed this when I recently tried out the “video camera” approach – to look at my own lecture recording (thanks to the nice IT facilities at High Holborn) for self-reflection. The article (Harris, 2022) quoted sentence, “While students are working or thinking, don’t use this as a time to share information” from Phillips (2017), which resonates with this recent discovery. I’ll try to purposefully pause and leave blank for thinking. In addition, when addressing practical knowledge in the lecture, I’ll try pausing the class for a few minutes and signposting students to break out and play with demos/materials. I believe this can be a nice way for working and thinking to emerge during a lecture.
Working with Class Dynamics
I recently learnt to arrange the pacing of a lecture by deciding which parts should speed up or simply use signposts to direct students to extended readings, and which parts should slow down to flourish thinking. Sometimes I purposefully slow down the pace of addressing by using written notes. Because of the lower speed of writing, the pace of the class slows down.
I also noticed a decrease in dynamics when more critical topics were introduced. In a lecture that I recently delivered, I mentioned the bias issue that is historically and systematically inherited in AI language models. There was a noticeable silence but focused attention in the students, with occasional nodding indicating that thinking and information processing were happening.
References
- Harris, K., 2022. Embracing the silence: introverted learning and the online classroom. Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal 5, 101–104.
- Phillips, K., 2017. How to Use Silence as a Teaching Tool [WWW Document]. The Art of Education University. URL https://theartofeducation.edu/2017/11/silence-teaching-tool/ (accessed 3.18.25).