Democratic Decisions
Faculty invited students to share democratically in decisions about the course goals, processes or products.
About
Having a classroom where the students step in and take responsibility for their own learning by helping set class goals, design assignments, or even build rubrics for grading, may seem to faculty like an abdication of their role, or at the least, uncomfortable. However, faculty who are looking to increase student engagement, help students become self-regulated learners, or even build a community of scholars would do well to look into the benefits of allowing student to participate democratically in these decisions. Faculty who use these kind of activities report these benefits, plus the opportunity to provide students with a more open and responsive look at the processes that go on in the real world. Since both students and faculty tend to be new to this process, there is a learning curve for both sides, so faculty need to set limits, facilitate well, and prevent marginalizing or groupthink tendencies. However, the longer learning curve, the uncomfortability factor, and the open-endedness of the direction and content will probably continue to keep Bucknell faculty from investing heavily in this activity.
The original study's data and analysis for "Democratic Decisions" can be found on this link.
What Faculty Have To Say
Strengths (6)
- Promotes student buy-in and investment in their learning
- Community building
- Student responsibility and agency
- Rapid feedback
- Realistic consequences
- Open discussion of a realistic decision making process, including the inputs as well as the outcomes
Weaknesses (8)
- Students may be resistant to the responsibility
- Students may avoid difficult topics
- Groupthink can take over
- Can marginalize individual or groups
- Participation challenging for shy students
- The professor has to give up some control
- Good for vocal teachers
- May seem like unpreparedness
Pedagogy Usage
Bucknell faculty was asked their best estimate for how often in the semester they used Democratic Decisions and the average class time it took.
Average Duration: 12 min (mode=10)
Remote Suggestions
This pedagogy requires two-way conversation and feedback, but can be handled asynchronously as well through a shared Google Doc, a Moodle Feedback or Forum tool, or any other polling software. In a hybrid class, the conversation portion can still happen, perhaps split into different days.
Resources for Additional Learning
Articles & Books
- Empowering Education, Ira Shore.
- Pedagogy and Politics: Democracy in the Classroom, by Franke Wilmer.