This is an activity, but also a facilitation best practice. This is a good strategy to model at the beginning of the semester and utilize throughout your sessions. It can help with redirecting questions and encourage students to interact and see each other as credible resources for questions.
- When a student asks a question during a session, have 3 students contribute to answering the question.
- The SI Leader can mediate correct responses and help fill in gaps in understanding once 3 students have contributed.
Example:
- Student: “I’m confused about the different types of operant conditioning – the positives and negatives get me tripped up?”
- SI: “Can anyone explain a bit more about operant conditioning?”
Student 1: “The positives and negatives aren’t about good or bad. Positive means adding something. Negative means taking it away.” - Student 2: “Yeah, so just think of positive like a + sign and negative like a – sign.”
- Student 3: “So negative punishment means taking away something good. For instance, taking away your kid’s Playstation. Positive would be giving him more chores to do.”
- SI: Good… *can add more information if needed*
*** As the SI Leader, it can be helpful to count on your fingers as each student chimes in. It might be silly at first, but if you make this a habit, your students will know to expect it and be ready to chime in with more information. Also, you don’t have to stop after 3! In this scenario, there is definitely more information that could be shared. Maybe instead, you ask another follow up question to prompt the group. For instance, “Good, what about positive/negative reinforcement?” ***