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I did not take courses
that emphasized public speaking, the kind where you elaborate in front of the
class for an extended period (with everyone looking). I stumbled through and
must have looked stupid. A few years earlier I did a magnificent job as the
speaker for an international food drive in front of a throng of students
(without notes) at a dormitory and gave one or two project reports in front of
my classmates for a physiology class.
Basically, that was it for the entirety of my four-year undergraduate
tenure other than participation in small group discussion courses. My comfort
zone was to enroll in courses, take notes, and study for tests – the high-level
engagement that suited me almost exclusively because I was driven by grades and
the opportunity to decorate my report card. However, it became clear that the
ability to speak in both an organized and extemporaneous fashion was a
necessity for any individual that desired success in the academic and work
world.
That terribly
embarrassing moment in the conference room in front of my NIH peers and
professors was crushing mainly because I was rendered powerless when it
mattered most. Some of that ineptitude carried over into my career as a teacher
and I turned down speaking offers at in-services as well. Experience led to
confidence, however, and presenting to large groups of teachers across the
state and my faculty were more common. It was classroom practice and delivering
assemblies related to student
science project work that refined my style and created confidence to the point
where I welcomed opportunities to talk and engage with audiences.
I marvel at people in
high visibility situations – ballplayers, politicians, news reporters – that
converse with such ease in front of cameras. In some instances, these are
college athletes or even high school students. Many of my students have an
outstanding public presence communicating extemporaneously in a poised and
articulate manner in front of their peers on a variety of subjects. There were
instances when students would consult with me on concerns such as grades,
projects, or other matters with an excellent stream of conscious maintaining
eye contact and speaking
convincingly with well-constructed sentences.
Yikes. How did these
young people become assertive in adult settings?
Some of that skill was taught in their homes as I witnessed the same
conversational style by their parents at conferences and other gatherings. In
other words, these were parents that recognized articulate speech as essential
for success in the adult world and expected their children to talk in that
manner at home and elsewhere. Good for them.
This is assertiveness at its best: in control of the dialogue,
defending opinions, poised, expressive, and spontaneous in the discussion. It maintains a stream of
conscious juggling values and concepts, incorporating the pattern and
prediction elements discussed earlier. Not only is it grammar-correct but uses
elevated cognition through analysis, citing facts, and describing
relationships. I was inspired by their engagement.
Let's admit that these
qualities are not just game show blurts but a level of communication that is
useful and appreciated. All of us would agree that the gift of gab is desirable
in young people.
Students as
validating agents
in the classroom
The individual
positioned in front of their peers in such a manner is not unlike the
experience of participants in golf, tennis, swimming, or instrumental soloists
where the attention is scrutinized and measured against the performance of
others. The team participant has an individual responsibility of course but is
combined with those of teammates to get a cumulative effect. Tiger Woods comments: "you
see quite a few guys get the yips [extreme nervousness], not only in the golf
swing but a ton of guys with putting and chipping. This game is so demanding
mentally that sometimes it is really nice to shut down and get away from this
thing before you crank it back up again".2 That is the fear
response originating from the amygdala as the professional
golfer experiences tension competing in tournaments and loses composure as they
strain to better their opponents in front of a national audience.
Admittedly, the solo
opportunity in a classroom does not approximate that type of pressure, though a
little uneasy at first, improving with practice to allow the student to be
comfortable performing in front of peers. The classroom, therefore, becomes a
safe haven for public speaking.
The relevance is that it opens the door
to the risk-taking needed to function comfortably and assertively in the often
stressful and high-expectation work world a few years down the road. Recurrent
validation leads to confidence and our schools will be
drastically improved when this is universally recognized.
As I mentioned earlier,
Margaret Andrews, instructor at Harvard University's Division of Continuing
Education, commented that lifelong career success leans heavily on leadership, the ability to work
well on a team, and communication skills.3 It is my contention that
these qualities be considered as early as elementary grades and that schools
create opportunities to build confident and articulate children.
A few years into my
career I broke away from being the solo facilitator and allowed students
to lead discussions at the board, to solve problems, and even delegate
responsibilities to their peers. The novelty was enhanced because
everyone in time had a chance to be the 'teacher' and nurture leadership skills. The class learned to be patient and
tolerant as their friends worked to organize their thoughts and make the
presentation. They were supportive as mistakes were made and participated with
greater frequency.
There is a gradation of
student participation that corresponds with attentiveness and is proportional to the degree students are
empowered in the
decision-making and knowledge flow of the lesson. That attentiveness is based on several factors, a few out of an
instructor's control.
Some include a
student's mood upon entering a class such as the a) disposition toward the subject
("I don't like math and have never been good at it"), b) the teacher
("He is boring and dresses poorly"), c) peers ("I don't like
these kids"). There are a range of factors associated with a student's
attitude including the amount of sleep, relevance of school in the child's life, physical issues,
and/or domestic life. Children often come into classrooms with baggage and the
motivation to cooperate varies from indifference to
genuine love of the course. Consider, too, the routine becoming repetitive and
uneventful as the school year unravels.
However, I found that
an atmosphere that values a student's thoughts and opinions will overcome
negativity and boredom because the mind searches for interesting avenues,
whether academic or social. Recognition of worth supersedes issues and setting
up the classroom to inspire participation is a catalyst that strokes an
individual's self-concept.
The following activities are
incorporated in schools the world over and have been proven to significantly
promote engagement by validating and empowering students.
School
1. Designate
students to serve as guides and docents for various functions such as Back to
School Night and tours.
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2. Require the oldest members of the school
(8th grade for middle schools and 12th grade for high
schools) give formal presentations at an assembly.
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3. Encourage
participation in debate and speech competitions.
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4.
Encourage participation in drama and
forensics.
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5. Create
assemblies to show off vocal and instrumental skills.
Have the students discuss the pieces they are presenting.
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6.
Develop a mentoring program that
couple lower grades with the high school students such as tutoring subjects
or playing games.
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7. Institute a service program that can range
from in-school to the many opportunities in the community.
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8.
Maintain speech classes in the
curriculum. Include a unit on interviewing, particularly pausing, hand
gestures, eye
contact, and voice
articulation.
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9. Take whole grade
levels or other groups on overnight retreats at outdoor leadership camps.
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10.
Promote creative writing and journalism as either curricular or club
opportunities.
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Classroom
A
Basic Level Attentiveness and Assertion
1. Have students answer questions during your lecture.
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2. Have another student respond to the previous
student's comments.
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3. Have a student
summarize a topic.
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4. Have students complete a worksheet.
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5. Present a
relevant video in part or whole.
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B
High Level Assertion and Validation
These are exercises
that allow individuals to be expressive and spontaneous because they are in
front of their peers, making decisions, talking, and manipulating the flow of
the lesson. They change the character of your classroom in a significant
manner.
6. Have a student lead a discussion in front of
the class on a topic or solve a problem on the board. I did this frequently
and the students enjoyed the friendly banter with classmates, and broke
things up between my presentation and the homework review, improving attention.
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7. Empower students
to run the class by delegating responsibilities such as your lecture presentation, entrusting other students to
perform a homework follow-up, and other tasks. The students
enjoy the role and the class appreciates the allocation of authority, an
assertiveness that maximizes attention throughout the
room, a difference-maker in my mind because of the extemporaneous nature of the talk and peer validation of task accomplishment.
The students are spirited in
this environment and claim ownership of your content area.
The leader incorporates affirming statements such as:
"Who would like to
answer this question?"
"Nice job. Thank you
for your response."
"I could use a
volunteer to solve the problem at the board."
"Does anyone else have
an opinion on this topic?"
"What happened during
the Dust Bowl of the 1930s?"
"Does anyone need more
clarification on how Brad got that problem answered?"
"Mr. Smith, is there
something you would like to add?"
How is this different from
item 6? Students take on more responsibilities: homework review, assign a worksheet,
deliver a slide show, take attendance, coordinate group work, start the class
with an entering task.
Again,
why is classroom empowerment important? Frymier, Shulman, and Houser assert that it is “the process of creating
intrinsic task motivation by providing an environment and tasks which
increase one’s sense of self-efficacy and energy. The more impact individuals
believe they have, the more internal motivation they should feel, personal
involvement and self-efficacy, [as well as] a more positive attitude toward
the course content and instructor.”4 Thomas and Velthouse break it
down into four categories: "meaningfulness, competence, impact, and
choice"5.
As children mature they test
societal boundaries and develop personal rules of conduct. Modeling by five
or more teachers each day helps to some extent but putting young people in
leadership roles requires planning as students take
turns replicating the behavior modeled by their instructors and become
facilitators themselves.
As mentioned earlier,
thirty-one percent of the nearly two million students that took the ACT in 2014 did not meet benchmarks on the
English, reading, math and science portions to warrant success when they
entered college. That correlates with what the High School Survey of Student
Engagement (HSSSE) discovered from a 2009 survey of 42,000 high
school students that found about two-thirds bored or essentially not
connected to school. The survey coordinators learned that students want
lessons embracing interaction between teachers and peers. Their brains are
turned on to the many images and messages flashing across their devices, and
the comparatively mellow classrooms are not inspiring the knowledge
assimilation and skill development they will need in a university
setting.
Therefore, empowering students to have a stake in the delivery and
management of content increases the dopaminergic effect,
enabling heightened attention and memory enhancement. It also serves to build
appreciation for subjects leading to a desire to learn more and facilitate
the curriculum in an analytical and creative manner.
They are empowered when they select which questions or problems
to discuss from homework or a worksheet.
Deciding on the date of a unit test is useful because you find out what
classes have a test on your proposed day. Ascertaining whether a task should
be performed in either a teacher-directed, group format, or a
student-directed mode provides further flexibility. For the most part, my
lessons were highly structured based on the amount and difficulty level of
topics, but a consensus early in the school year revealed which style the
students preferred.
The most significant criterion, nevertheless,
was assuring universal engagement, and that typically occurred when students
were empowered as leaders and decision-makers.
It was in this arena that they received maximum validation.
I rarely interfered when
students conducted a discussion, unless they asked for clarification. The
very position of students front-and-center, engaging classmates to partake in
the banter, was especially inspiring and brought joy to the classroom,
including the humor and reinforcing comments as ideas were
expressed.
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B
High Level Assertion and Validation
These are exercises
that allow individuals to be expressive and spontaneous because they are in
front of their peers, making decisions, talking, and manipulating the flow of
the lesson. They change the character of your classroom in a significant
manner.
8. Have students
work collaboratively on worksheets and projects. Rotate the roles mentioned previously
during collaborative work so that over the course of the school year each
student has a tenure as the leader, a vital
element in assertiveness development.
9.
Assign topics that will be given as
speeches or PowerPoint presentations to the class.
I believe children are
best served when they are mentally alert in the school environment as
performers, similar to the sports venue where both individual and team-oriented
skills are demonstrated. In this case performers of academic pursuits from
knowledge acquisition to evaluative discourse. That is accomplished when
teacher presentations are well organized and relevant, but additionally in
student leadership and collaborative close-order settings as they
participate in one or more of the above activities including extemporaneous speaking. They
flourish and derive life-long benefits.
This book emphasizes
interpersonal skills and the cognitive uplift derived from raised dopamine secretion in the
nucleus accumbens to sustain attention
and minimize fear during social engagement. Studies with rodents and primates reveal aggressive,
non-compliant tendencies in juveniles when separated from cohorts in early
childhood. From the human perspective, are there consequences from reduced face
to face contacts in childhood in the iPhone and messaging era? Studies reveal
that levels of anxiety have risen in the American population based on
data from personality inventories including increases in suicidal thoughts and
counseling visits in college-age students (see Appendix H6,7). More
than ever, children are in need of wholesome validation.
Interaction that amplifies student validation
Along that line, my concern is that
substantial numbers are "falling through the cracks" in high school,
validated primarily by media-driven sources, and not task management procedures
that build confidence and self-control.
Moreover, there are
potential risks for enabling a sizeable sector of the population to lack the
communication and anger management skills needed to function harmoniously in
society. Most students are not obsessed about grades as I was to sustain
concentration through lectures and then study to get high scores on exams. I
regret to this day avoiding courses with extemporaneous speaking and group
projects because they seemed irrelevant and resorted to the path of least
resistance by taking lecture format subjects whenever possible. In that
regard, students today are passing through classrooms without exercising their
interpersonal potentials during content area facilitation,
particularly the thought processes associated with content analysis in front of
an attentive peer audience. Students need to be challenged to think on their
feet and not get flustered, foster emotional control while transmitting and receiving feedback to and from
classmates. As their teacher, I felt obliged to validate all my students as
purposeful individuals in the school, bolstering their academic self-concept
and ability to converse comfortably, amidst a diversity of personalities and
situations.
Tests and grades serve
a purpose in the education industry but classrooms that balance
teacher-directed instruction and structured close-order face-to-face activities drive the
dopaminergic effect to heighten
engagement along with the neuroplasticity that builds memory
and stimulates higher analytical functioning.
The book is suggesting that
teacher-directed presentations (lectures) mixed with leadership and close order
collaborative sessions ranging in complexity can deliver the interaction that
amplifies student assertiveness, camaraderie,
and knowledge acquisition.
Furthermore, putting
students in solo situations where they are expressive and spontaneous intensifies the
dopaminergic effect, and when sequenced from short 'safe' events to more
elaborate extemporaneous or planned
deliveries, affirms, creates confidence. It is novelty reaching the
‘thrill’ level in many instances, maximizing dendritic sprouting in the hippocampus.
A Home Run
It was the most memorable day of my youth – I homered in the city championship softball game providing the margin of victory against a very talented opponent. I raced breathlessly around the bases and into the arms of a delirious group of smiling and back-slapping teammates at home plate. Everyone played well that season, a group of classmates since first grade who evolved into a very talented ballclub. After humiliating myself with poor fielding and batting in previous years, a friend suggested I practice when school ended in June. It was a daily grind, but it paid off and the captain inserted me in the lineup when he saw that I had power and could field well from any outfield position.
I was the hero that day, the competent ballplayer, the person responsible for winning the most crucial game of our lives. It was personally rewarding because I won the admiration of my teammates. But the celebration intensified when Coach drove us back to school and escorted me to the front door where a throng of adoring fans gave me a rousing welcome. I was the center of attention, the special person that brought honor and happiness to the Fifty-Third Street School community. It was a once in a lifetime moment that hovered between awkwardness and glee. It was an incredible affirmation of my ability as a ballplayer – a real confidence builder.
Though the jubilation wilted by evening, the event nevertheless helped me see the correlation between effort and achievement, an important validation during my teen years. Furthermore, through deliberate practice with the aid of parents, teachers, and advocates I improved in other areas: as a student, musician, and colleague. I never hit a game-winning homerun again, but this unusually validating experience gave me a keen sense of purpose and desire to obtain the endorphin-affirming sensation again.
In a similar vein, I observed how a kind word or well-designed assignment validated students. While effectively transmitting content was a priority, allowing students to hit their own "homeruns" regularly was a cornerstone of my career. The expressive and validated child is neurologically affected for life and student-led discussions, team-based tasks, and extemporaneous events empowers them, helps them meet goals because everyone is front and center, in the batter's box so to speak, and affirmed by peers. Recognizing validation as a driving force when teaching content areas is critical if we are to help students derive ownership over their academic lives.
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References
1. Sutherland,
Jeff, (2014). The art of doing twice as much in half the time, TEDxAix,
Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4thQcgLCqk
2. Hack, D., (June
11, 2007). Golf: The stress and fear of playing the waiting game,
Retrieved from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/sports/11ihtMENTAL.4.6097207.html?_r=0
3. Andrews, M.,
(June 30, 2015) What Do Employers Want?
Retrieved from:
https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/stratedgy/what-do-employers-want
4. Frymier, A. B., Shulman, G. M., and Houser, M. (1996). The
development of a learner empowerment measure. Communication Education, 45 (3),
181-199.
5. Thomas, K., and Velthouse, B. (1990). Cognitive elements
of empowerment: An “interpretive” mode of intrinsic task motivation. Academy of
Management Review, 15, 666-681.
6. Twenge, J.,
Gentile, B., DeWall, N., Ma, D., Lacefield, K., Schurtz, D., (2010). Birth
cohort increases in psychopathology among young Americans, 1938–2007: A
cross-temporal meta-analysis of the MMPI, Clinical
Psychology Review 30; 145–154.
7. Herzog, K., (May
12, 2016). Anxious? Deeply depressed?
More college students saying yes, Milwaukee-Journal
Sentinel.
