Group Work
Aisha Wilks and E. Scherzinger
DID YOU KNOW that a person’s identity can affect their classroom experience?
Hall and Sandler (1982) published a report on the “chilly climate” that women experience in undergraduate classrooms.
Sue Rosser (1998) responded with research on undergrad science classes, writing, “[I]f these dynamics [of race and gender] are ignored or misunderstood, group work may actually inhibit or detract from learning” (83).
Strategies
Some helpful strategies to combat a “chilly climate” include education and awareness, and adopting an anti-oppressive pedagogy.
- As noted by Crawford and MacLeod (1990), gender imbalances in the classroom are “best addressed by teachers who are aware of the gender difference, and use a variety of sensitive strategies to create a “student-friendly classroom”” (121)
- Because, as Karp and Yoels note, “[T]he educational system teaches students to passively view instructors as “experts” who impart “truth,”” students are led to “vie[w] their role as one of quietly listening and respectfully taking notes” (342)
- Adopting a pedagogical framework that reframes learning as a mutual process is found to greatly benefit students
Resources
For anti-oppressive pedagogical frameworks:
- Paulo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
- Crawford & MacLeod, “Gender in the College Classroom: An Assessment of the “Chilly Climate” for Women” (1990)