I’ve always been an introvert at heart, in and out of the classroom. I’m shy and speaking up in a classroom isn’t my favorite thing so of course my first thought is “DROP THE CLASS AND RUN” whenever I hear the words, “Participation matters and counts towards your grade.”
Being introverted doesn’t mean I’m not smart. I absolutely love learning new things and being introduced to classes I never thought would be interesting. And me not speaking up in a classroom doesn’t mean I don’t know the answer or that I don’t understand what is going on in the class. This is what is so frustrating to me. I know the answers. I want to be able to raise my hand. But my introverted tendencies keep me from doing so, leading to a low participation grade, leading to a grade I probably don’t deserve in that class. This is why I believe participation in a classroom environment shouldn’t be a part of your grade, or even matter half as much as these liberal arts teachers believe it should.
Some people are great at speaking out in classrooms – you know the type. The kind of student who raises their hand fifteen times within the first twenty minutes of class. And no, I’m so not looking down on these people. I literally have dreams about being this kind of student. That kind of student doesn’t panic at the mere thought of having to raise their hand to get called on, this student is confident in their answers, they don’t worry about looking or sounding stupid, or getting the answer wrong AND the cherry on top is that they’re going to have a great participation grade which will affect their overall grade in the end.
But on the other hand…you have the type of student I am, which I’m sure at least a few of you can relate to. I do know the answers (or at least I think I do) but I am so not confident in the answer and then of course panic that I’m going to get the answer wrong and then I’ll look stupid in front of the whole class and then everyone will think I’m stupid, which I’m not, but they totally will think I am and- you know… that panicky type of thinking which leads to you not raising your hand to speak up and answer. Then someone else says the right answer which was, indeed, the answer you had in your head and you feel like an idiot anyway for not speaking up in the first place. You excel at writing papers and reading the homework and answering questions on paper about it, you know, anything that doesn’t actually require speaking out loud.
Maybe this is just me going on a tangent and blaming my lower than average grades on a factor that doesn’t even matter, but I genuinely believe that it’s not fair to some students that participation matters so strongly, especially in a liberal arts school. Some students genuinely have panic attacks at the thought of having to answer a question in class, and it’s ten times worse if you get one of those professors who randomly calls on kids in class who don’t even have their hand raised. Panic increases tenfold. If I wasn’t being graded on my abilities to speak in front of twenty other students, my grades would increase that much more.
Classroom participation just is not my thing, and I assume at least a small part of campus would agree. Some kids excel at group discussions and speaking to and with their peers that are ultimately strangers to them but it’s clearly not my forte. As much as I wish I could change that and be that student that actively talks all class period long, it probably is never going to happen, and the fact that I get graded on this doesn’t sit well with me.
Thoughts about class participation? Tweet them to us @HerCampusSiena!