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Hark! Here Cometh Another Educational Fad!
For years, I’ve donated to our school district’s educational foundation. I know my money goes towards funding scholarships, or buying technology like computers and 3D printers for the school labs.
So it was no surprise when I received my 2017 appeal letter from the foundation. The surprise was this year’s fundraising drive: $25,000 for tables. I thought our schools had a lot of those already, but apparently they’re not Harkness Tables, which are critical to implementing the pedagogically-progressive Harkness Method.
Do you know what the Harkness Method is? I didn’t, either. Here’s how our foundation describes it:
As you probably know, the “Sage-on-the-Stage” model of teaching, where knowledge is imparted mostly through lectures is morphing into a system by which students learn mostly from each other, through discussions and group projects. The role of the typical teacher is evolving into that of “The Guide on the Side”, directing the learning by encouraging students to be more active participants in classroom discussions, posing their own unique ideas and honing their presentation and team-building skills . . . Harkness Tables are designed to facilitate this style of learning at many of the top-rated schools around the country.
Okay. After reading that passage, I suddenly understood why my kids have been telling me that their classes have featured increasingly less formal instruction, more group projects and “breakout discussions” of 3-5 students. In fact, class participation is now a hefty part of their grades.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Requiring kids to volunteer their own take on a reading assignment, for instance, gets them to not only do the reading, but think about it as well. And the ability to listen and respond to others effectively is a good skill to learn.
Still, I see a lot of drawbacks to the Harkness Method.
Too much of it leads to insipid blather. For instance, my kids are taking US History and have not had a single lecture or talk all year. Every class has been comprised entirely of small-group discussion, usually centered upon reading. These are 15 and 16-year-olds, getting their first serious exposure to US History. Because their teacher never gives them a twenty-minute overview on, say, the trends leading to the Civil War, and because they are teens, the conversation tends towards the shallow end. Someone will offer a golden nugget like, “Wow. Slavery was really bad.” The rest will nod their heads gravely.
The windbags reign supreme. Everyone who’s ever had to operate in a group setting knows how this works. There’s always one person who tries to monopolize the conversation with their yapping. Sometimes there’s two, and they verbally go at it like Godzilla versus Mothra. Meanwhile, everyone else tries to squeeze in an observation or two in order to save their grade. For introverts like my son, this can be challenging. During English, while two young ladies talked over each other in manic fury, he kept checking the clock to see if he had time to make a comment before the bell rang. The teacher, however, thought he was checking the clock to see how much more Hell he had to endure. She gave him a low participation grade for not showing “respect” to his fellow students. At least my son learned a valuable lesson: It’s all about the optics.
Unless the instructor is really sharp, it’s like a vacation from teaching. From what I’ve gleaned from my kids and their friends, the Harkness method involves the teacher floating from small group to small group, sometimes interrupting to ask a pointed question, most of the time just listening. Okay. I guess that might work, if the questions actually guide discussion. But the cynic in me thinks: Hey! No lecture or talk to prepare! No in-class work to correct! Just take note of who’s talking and who isn’t. Easy-peasy.
My own kids prefer more of a balance between Harkness and traditional lecture. Non-stop small-group discussions, they say, lead to too much meandering and grand-standing.
As it turns out, they’re not alone. A graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy described her disillusionment with the Harkness Method in the Huffington Post. In her opinion, Harkness (used in every class at Exeter) emphasized the quantity of student commentary over the quality:
Instead of consulting my readings and collecting rare kernels of truth from my classmates in order to make a thoughtful comment when the time felt right, I started speaking whenever there was a momentary lull in the discussion, even if I had nothing to say. I learned to ask vague questions that allowed me to use my voice but often did little to advance my or my peers’ knowledge . . . At Exeter, I learned that what you said was more important than what you knew. I learned that the louder you are, the better you are. I learned that there’s only one way to learn anything, and that’s to talk in circles until someone takes notice.
Yeesh. On the bright side, this young lady has a promising career in PR . . . or politics.
But back to those Harkness Tables! You might be wondering why a table is so critical to the Harkness Method that my school district needs to drop around $25,000 on them. Well, I offer you this photo of a Harkness Table courtesy of Dr. Dimes, maker of “the only Harkness Table authorized by Phillips Exeter Academy”:
So obviously, they’re critical and far superior to any other large table because Harkness Tables are . . . oval? I mean, the pricier models have slide-out desks, but . . . really? The kids can’t arrange their desks in a circle or something?
Yeah, I think I’m holding onto my donation this year.
Published in General
Sheesh. I’ve worked with small groups a lot, Paula, and adults manage themselves poorly, for all the reasons you list and more. For kids–well, forget it. Staying on track is hugely difficult, making sure people have a chance to speak–the list goes on. If they want to have an occasional small group discussion, have parents donate a bunch of old card tables or picnic tables for use just for that purpose. Or have them move their desks around. It sounds like they need to use the money to hire teachers who actually teach, rather than babysit. Okay, I’m done . . .
Aaaarrrrggghhh!!!!!!!!!!
One general problem with this Socratic method stuff is that one stupid jerk student can ruin it for everybody by slowing the process down.
In a lecture hall, that student would keep quiet and fail while the other 30+ students learned. At the Harkness Table, he slows the process down to his speed or slower. This is particularly the case with subjects such as math.
I always hated group projects. They do, however, prepare students for the real world, where one bad apple on your team at work can drag everyone down.
Back in the ancient days when I was in college, we would sometimes get together in study groups. Especially when finals were coming up. They were cram sessions. I learned that if I could explain something to another person, I usually understood the subject and was ready for the exam.
I think this is the basis for this
HarkonenHarkness table teaching idea. The problem is that Harkness puts the table before the horse. In the cram sessions, the teacher had already imparted the information. (I’m being generous here.) We were helping each other absorb it. The Harkness method seems to assume that the teacher is a moderator and has little role in actually imparting information.I remember a particular team project in school. I had a single partner whom I carried completely. I complained to the professor. He said, “I know how’s doing all the work. Don’t worry.” We got the same grade.
Thank goodness for homeschooled children. Maybe they will actually learn something.
Great post. A truly great post.
When my first child went to school I assumed all of my son’s teachers would be professional and actually teach him him. My first inkling that this was a stupid assumption was when I asked his kindergarten teacher why my son was telling me he was “a teacher”. I thought the teacher’s response would leave me chuckling over how cute my son was being. But my son wasn’t being cute; he had been assigned to help another child learn to read since my son was already a reader. The teacher, very seriously, told me that my son would get more out helping his classmates then furthering his own reading abilities. She seemed quite shocked when I pointed out she, and not my son, was getting paid to teach the students to read.
I would suggest to the school that even better way to facilitate teaching in this manner would be to have the students sit on the floor in a circles and pass a stone to which ever student wishes to speak and share their thoughts (and yes, one school my kids attended had a special speaking stone because you just cannot raise your hand and take your turn when called on without holding on to a stone). Maybe you can mail them a box of “special rocks” for this purpose.
You cannot make this stuff up, @pauladavidson. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad and my tax money pays for this crap.
That’s based on what I learned as the “council” model. We use it quarterly for group discussions with our meditation group. The person with the “talking stick” or object gets to speak without being interrupted; the object is then put back to the center of the circle. The only guideline that might be an issue is that we don’t cross-talk, i.e., give our opinions on what the other person thinks, or give advice on what they should do. If you want to have the kids have a discussion, I guess that wouldn’t work.
I suppose a conch shell wasn’t handy.
Paula, Suzy, and all,
The American Educational System was the best in the world. We are now dismembering it to follow one snake oil salesman after another. This is an obvious attempt to lower reasoning skills even further as the grade on curve mentality travels farther and farther from any reality whatsoever.
Poor kids who must have their minds wasted by this. Poor taxpayers who must have the best infrastructure & highest paid teachers wasted on this garbage.
Regards,
Jim
19th Century pedagogical technology at work.
Isn’t it astounding, Susan, how some adults imagine that group discussion formats and techniques which barely function at times amongst educated adults who are attempting to practice mindfulness and impulse control will work in a 1200 square foot room with 35 ten-year-olds.
Education has trended more and more toward the “group project” . . . and of course, when everyone is responsible for a thing, nobody is. Under this educational method it appears that the teachers are dodging responsibility, too.
I’ve long seen this trend toward group projects as a sign of creeping collectivism. But maybe that’s the anti-Commie part of my brain doing the thinking.
This would be excellent for tabletop game sessions. I want one.
This one got a giggle out of me, Quake. Double like!
I’ve been a teacher across the spectrum from almost 30 years (middle school, high school, technical) and have seen such fads come and go. The pendulum always swings back, usually in about 10-15 years cycles. I predict that soon, a radical new teaching methodology (“Focused Directive” maybe?) will emerge, based upon “the demonstrated improvement in student performance when exposed to guided instruction provided by a trained and experienced subject matter expert”…in other words, when a teacher actually TEACHES a lesson.
This is true, unfortunately.
Ha! Brilliant. Yeah, for me it’s about balance. Nothing wrong with a good line of questioning from the teacher when it leads to a conclusion. But it’s hard to expect much of value to come from some back and forth between teens who don’t have a solid foundation yet.
White collar work does seem to be leaning towards group work. Do those open office floor plans really work, with everyone sharing ideas and getting all collaborative? I wouldn’t know, I work for myself, alone at a desk . . . just the way I like it.
You’re absolutely right. Funny how the fads always seem to involve costs — new books, consultants to train the teachers, tables, you name it. It’s a business.
I’m just glad I survived New Math. Yay for calculators!
No. Not unless the work requires collaboration. In that case, it used to be done in conference rooms or workshops. The open office just makes those aspects of work that benefit from isolation much harder to do.
There are a lot more noise suppressing headsets around, though.
If you adopt the POV that the education establishment exists for the convenience and welfare of the staff, it all makes sense.
I seem to recall reading about a recent study* that seemed to indicate those open office floor plans don’t work at all.
*Always take “study results” with a grain of salt.
Here are a few links:
The open office trend is destroying the workplace
Is the Open Office Trend Reversing Itself?
On the other hand:
The ideal office floor plan according to science.
(By the way, have you noticed how people tend to add phrases like “according to science” as an appeal in the same way previous generations might have used the Bible to back up assertions?)