I read Karen Harris’ Embracing the silence: introverted learning and the online classroom as a supplementary reading for Workshop 1. I picked this as a shy introvert who both struggles with verbally contributing in group settings, but also in a professional teaching capacity struggles with the absence of participation from students both in online and in-person teaching. Some of Harris’ points were particularly useful:
- The silent space can be a space of agency – students have the opportunity to use tools like the chat box and provide written comments.
- The idea of ‘compulsory contribution’ can be counter-productive. Allowing space for silence and not placing a huge amount of pressure to verbally participate can allow students to have the time to formulate and respond to ideas.
- Harris posits that “the digital classroom [could] be an opportunity to accommodate those who have a more introverted learning preference (Harris, p.102.). This comment particularly resonated with me from my own experiences of being a student who struggled to contribute in large group settings (either virtually or in-person). The key to this is still fostering a sense of community and collaboration in the online space by using chat functions and break-out groups.
Thoughts in relation to my own teaching practice
I don’t see students very often (in comparison with their course lecturers) so during sessions, I like to fill all the time I have with students with information and interaction. When students are using the time silently, it sometimes feels like I should be providing more to the students. This can be exacerbated online when there is increased anonymity (such as no cameras on etc). However, I am aware that silence can be a valuable tool to be used in sessions that can allow students to have agency over their learning through having the time to self-reflect and make sense of information and their understanding.
The silent classroom (either in-person or virtually) might allow students to fly under the radar. Less confident students might not want to raise their questions and as educators, we may not pick up on this, particularly in a large group setting or online. This could be mediated in a few ways:
- Create opportunities to raise questions/concerns/opinions in other ways such as through 1-1 tutorials or written emails.
- Create small group tasks to encourage collaboration and support. For example, a model of this could be a silent/quiet researching task followed by a small group task (in breakout rooms if online) where students share their findings with one another.
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References
Harris, K. (2022) ‘Embracing the silence: introverted learning and the online classroom’ in Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal, 5(1). Available at: https://sparkjournal.arts.ac.uk/index.php/spark/article/view/161 [Accessed: 5/2/2025]
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