Lessons in Harkness from the Get-Go

September 10, 2008

Seniors describe for new students how the Harkness classroom works

Each September, new Exeter students face a challenge: how do I figure out what Harkness learning is really all about? They've heard it discussed. They know the conceptual underpinnings: discussion, listening, collaboration, interaction. But what really happens in the classroom? What's it like to sit around an oval table – with 11 other students – and actively discuss everything from literature to historical events and mathematical equations? How does it feel to have students take the lead, with the teacher interposing questions and guiding?

Last week, new students got some answers. They gathered in the Phelps Academy Center Forum to watch 12 seniors discuss the poem "Blackberry-Picking" by Seamus Heaney. The demonstration was a real discussion, not rehearsed. It illustrated how Exonians learn to drive a classroom discussion through questions and respectful listening. The new students observed, and then got a chance to ask some questions of their own.

"How do you keep the conversation from being monopolized by 1 or 2 people?" asked a student. "Do you take notes while the discussion is happening?" wondered another. "How are you evaluated in this style of classroom interaction?" queried a third. The 12 seniors responded with explanations and personal anecdotes. Becky Moore, English Department chair, and Jane Cadwell, dean of academic affairs, provided the teacher's perspective.

The annual Harkness demonstration invariably generates great enthusiasm among new students. "I distinctly remember going to my own Harkness demonstration prep year, watching the seniors interact, and being very excited and anxious about my upcoming experience with Harkness," remembered Bhargavi, one of the seniors who demonstrated the Harkness technique. "The most important thing for new students to understand is that Harkness is a skill, not a trait you're born with."

Cadwell concurs: "I see Harkness work as a skill that our students learn over the course of their time here. Our hope is to give them a variety of ways that they can participate while still being themselves."

For Moore, the annual Harkness demonstration is a great way to get new students participating effectively early on. "If you give students a chance to think about the process of discussion, they are more able to vary their own roles in the conversation; if you only think about adding an observation and never think about adding evidence that augments the point made by the student next to you, you have a limited experience at the table," she said. "Students may learn this intuitively after awhile, but we hope that they will be more conscious of such possibilities earlier as a result of the demonstration, along with the Q and A afterward."

Bhargavi felt "excited and honored" to be asked to demonstrate Harkness for new students. "Sitting there in the Forum with fellow classmates that I have gotten to know over the past four years, it was really incredible to realize, 'Hey, we did this. We started from scratch, and figured it out!' "

At the end of the session, a throng of students poured out of the Forum, excitedly chatting about what they'd seen and what the first classes would be like. Perhaps some were even thinking to themselves, "That might be me up there in a few years, showing how Harkness discussion works!"

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