Why has student participation dropped drastically?
By Riley Moore
There is a moment that every student and teacher knows, but we experience different sides of it. The professor asks a question and looks to the students to provide some form of insight.
The bevy of students dread this because now they have to seem busy to avoid answering.
The hapless professor dreads this moment because after narrowly avoiding eye contact and with the students uncomfortably shifting in their seats, the teacher must answer their own question.
Does this feel familiar at all? Perhaps it’s more than just a familiar moment- it’s part of the zeitgeist in today’s college classrooms. A quick look at a r/Professor forum provides insight to this situation and quickly shows us this is not isolated to one professor, one classroom, one school, or even one country- this is happening in classrooms everywhere.
In one recent post to the Reddit thread, a professor recounts their personal trials with attempting to bribe students with candy, participation points, anonymous polling, writing and sharing exercises, and anonymous feedback all in an effort to get students talking in the classroom. This professor is left feeling hopeless and wondering “what else am I supposed to try?”
And perhaps that is the question we should be asking. Not “what is wrong with our students today?” But instead, “What is happening within classrooms, and how can we respond to it?”
The silent classroom is not a new problem, but this feels different
Teachers have always had silent students within classrooms. In fact, silent classrooms were a show of a good teacher who could handle their students. But as students got older, they stayed within the confines of that “good” silence instead of ever branching out to the scary or “bad” noise, like answering questions in class.
There have always been students who would rather sit in the back, take notes, and leave without ever having to offer their ideas or opinions up to a classroom of their peers. But now many instructors are describing something much broader and deeper: classrooms in which getting anyone to answer questions feels like pulling teeth. One professor took the time to recount a recent class they taught, describing that “no one ever raises their hands, asks questions, or makes comments. It’s just a sea of blank looks/looking at their devices.” In reply to that thread, another instructor recounts a class of theirs asking for more discussion on course evaluations, so the instructor set that up. Come time to discuss, no one in the class participated.
I find these contradictions fascinating. One, that students are actively paying and wasting their time to go to these classrooms to sit and stare vacantly at their devices. So, clearly a part of them know this is valuable to their brains and development and future, but there is still a dissonance.
And secondly, that students are saying they want more open discussions, only to not even participate when the said discussion is opened up. Maybe the problem isn’t as simple as whether students want to participate.
What if students are afraid of being wrong?
Some of the more revealing answers come from a Reddit thread called r/CollegeRant, where a student asks for advice or understanding of her classmates who utterly refuse to participate in classroom discussions. Reddit user, Hollyann, states that during her “first semester she thought it was just people being anxious, or maybe the majority of students being straight out of high school they weren’t actually that interested in school in general. But it’s been persistent, and it’s getting on my nerves.”
The reason she cites for these behaviors “getting on her nerves” is because it’s gotten to a point where professors will look at Hollyann with pleading eyes, hoping she will answer the question everyone else refuses to. The replies to this original post vary in understanding and sentiment, but almost all of them point to the simple understanding that students are afraid to get it wrong.
Reddit user, MelissaM replies that “so many people aren’t willing to go outside their comfort zone to interact in class. Especially because they fear that they will be wrong so it’s better to not say anything at all.” Similarly, another Reddit user writes in agreement, attributing social anxiety being the lead cause of limited participation in classrooms, saying: “It’s an overall increase in social anxiety among Gen Z. Also, this generation is particularly focused on being “right” the first time. Being wrong at all is a social death sentence and somehow means you’re stupid and you’ll never learn.”
One anonymous Reddit user, who battles with social anxiety but is getting her undergraduate degree, states they don’t speak in class because they’re “terrified of somehow bothering the class” or an “answer being wrong and looking like an idiot in front of everyone.”
Therefore, it’s fair to say that there is an environment of fear and judgement that is existing within most classrooms, and this makes it impossible for ALL students to feel safe to interact.
When students don’t feel like their voice is important to the conversation, they zone out. They let AI speak for them and watch random YouTube videos to pass the time in class; thus, losing all accountability for their education. I feel that because of this, we’ve entered this ouroboros where the cycle keeps repeating. Because students don’t feel safe to interact in class, they never even give it a chance. They sit down and the first thing they do is find a distraction for the rest of the class.
Most students now fail to give the teacher or class an opportunity and instead launch right into their devices. Now, the students will never even know if they truly would’ve made good contributions to the classroom, because they shut their brains off before they even give it an opportunity. From this, it’s evident the epidemic of lack of student participation has sprouted from social anxiety and major internet dependency.
Be the change you want to see
This is where I believe professors can make this biggest change. As soon as students come into the classroom and start opening their laptops, Ipads, tablets, phones, whatever it may be…tell them the class is going analogue that day. Watch their faces drop as they lose their entertainment.
Now, whether or not they participate is still up in the air- but at least then you know it not because of digital distractions. One element eliminated.
I have personal experience with this working in one of my classes. This was mainly a discussion- based class and my professor got really fed up with two people speaking every day. So that next class, when we went analogue things changed. It wasn’t a magical fix and not everyone in the class was contributing, but in an hour and a half, around half of the class had spoken. In a class of roughly 20 people, half of them speaking in one class was such a drastic difference from the classrooms we’d been operating in. And the next class, the professor did the same thing. Everything away, except a piece of paper and a pen on your desk. Sure enough, more of my classmates found their voices and wanted to speak. And more often than not, students would engage to rebuttal another student’s opinion. Now conversations were coming from conversations that had never been there before. A new cycle had been created.
Instead of continuing this education cycle, whereby both professors and students alike are all showing signs of disdain towards interactions in classrooms, I say it’s time we all put in a little effort to cause some (hopefully) big change. Professors, I plead with you to be open to new, fun, and interactive ways of teaching. I implore you to make the class go analogue- coming from a college student myself, trust me we can take a few hours a day without a screen in front of our face. I believe it’s imperative for the classroom environment to feel safe and accepting, and that life failing or messing up is just a stepping stone to succeeding.
And my fellow students, I beg you to be open to difficult and tumultuous times in your education process. I know that it seems easier to sit quietly in the classroom, but my hunch is that you are negatively impacting yourself in the long run. It is in the public interest that everyone puts their education cowboy hats on and let themselves get bucked around. Sit with some discomfort and speak your voice. Even though it may be difficult; the more you speak your mind, the easier it is to actually know what you think
