| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
The silent participant in small group collaborative learning contextsUniversity of Melbourne, Australia, louisajr{at}unimelb.edu.au
University of Melbourne, Australia, d.clarke{at}unimelb.edu.au
University of Melbourne, Australia, l.hawthorne{at}unimelb.edu.au There is an increasing acceptance in the education literature and in classroom settings for `best practice' to be linked with verbal clarification of knowledge and reasoning, ideally in collaborative contexts where students construct both group and individual knowledge. Problem-based learning (PBL) is one such classroom context in which participation is viewed as leading to learning and where the nature of `good' participation is verbal contribution. Students who choose to participate without speaking, or `silent' students, are often seen as failing to learn, and significant tutor time is devoted to encouraging verbal input. This article examines the experience of four `silent participants' (two overseas-educated and two local Australian) in a PBL context. The analysis reported in this article suggests that students' choice to be silent is a consequence of multiple constraints — personal, contextual and cultural — and that silence should not be taken to signify lack of learning.
Key Words: collaboration • cross-cultural learning • problem-based learning • silent students
Active Learning in Higher Education, Vol. 9, No. 3,
201-216 (2008) |
|||
 |
|
|
 |
|
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
