ABSTRACT
This chapter examines participation and how faculty can structure class time in order to maximize opportunities for students to more fully engage with different groups and consequently expand their global mindset and learning. Regardless of the specific definition used for participation, what faculty are seeking is for students to engage with the material. Engagement can be seen as students putting forth extra “effort and involvement in productive learning activities”. In other words, in-class participation is much more meaningful when the people in the room (physical or virtual) connect. Simply placing students who hold different beliefs or are from different backgrounds together in a group, or leading large-class discussions, will not automatically lead to successful participation in a global classroom. Some of the challenges lie in the affective realm. Some students worry about talking too much and frustrating classmates. Faculty has many tools at their disposal in terms of supporting connections between students.
