Approaching the end of the semester, one student raised a very interesting question in class. "Do I have enough attendance?" It is interesting because he is a fairly punctual student. He attended most of the classes; he spread his textbook and handouts over the table with all sorts of highlighting and markings on them- yet of a different subject. "Why would you ask so?" I said. "I want to know how many scores I will have for my (continuous) assessment." He said. Okay. That's one fine question in which he should know how many lessons he has attended and missed. "Are you aware of the fact that it's graded based on your participation rather than solely on your attendance?" The class shocked, and some started to panic too. I continued, "Besides the attendance, you'll also need to actively participate in our class activities." Fortunately, he was a good student, and soon he understood that he has asked a wrong question.
In-class participation is always a challenge for me. It is difficult especially in a classroom full of local students. It is not a problem for the mainland students or the international students to do discussion; why is it such a pain to ask the students to be a bit more active in class? They do not even have to answer correctly- as there is often no correct or wrong answer! Possibly they lack confidence. When I ask the students to come talk to me in private, there is no problem at all -- a few of them are even willing to try to discuss in English. They are not that shy or they do not have a lack of confidence after all. Perhaps, they are just terrified in making mistakes as they are likely to be defeated.
It is not so bad after all: in one of my classes, the classroom dynamic is pretty good as the students are already very close to each other. Being part of a group really helps them to speak out, but it is not always the case. There is still a long way ahead to search for the magic key.