Chapter Three Summary

Teaching with Your Mouth Shut, by Donald L. Finkel

Chapter 3

Significant Points in the Chapter

          Seminar learning is a tradition that has been used in education for many years, yet it remains vague and its appropriateness for student learning is sometimes difficult for an educator to discern.  This chapter focuses on why and how to use the seminar approach; specifically open-ended seminar, and that student inquiry can create learning in the classroom. If the teacher can give up his/her control, which they have to do at the end of the day anyway, these approaches might help the classroom conversations extend into the informal part of a student’s life.

Discussing a Book with Others Who Have Read It

In order to facilitate a student-led discussion, it should start with a seminar. It is important to realize “the seminar belongs to the students” (p. 32). There will be other times when background information can be provided but students need these introductory lessons so they can struggle with the text themselves. Teachers should not share their own interpretations or explanation but rather let the students hypothesize about issues, beliefs, concerns, and questions they developed when reading the text.  To create a seminar method, three styles can be used: graduate seminar, Socratic seminar, and the open-ended seminar. The graduate style seminar is when students present formal papers to the class for discussion. The Socratic seminar, which the author points out is misnamed, is when the teacher leads the students to preordained conclusions. The open-ended seminar is when students bring their own questions and ideas and through a class discussion, address these issues.  The purpose of the open-ended seminar is to deepen the student’s own understanding through mutual discussion and inquiry. In this situation, it is essential to remember that the outcome cannot be predetermined, the teacher will need to assume multiple roles, and the one role the teacher cannot accept is the role of Telling.

So how can open-ended seminar work when the students do not understand the text or its messages and the teacher is not leading them? To answer this concern, the author provides several points to consider. First, the teacher should not use ignorance as an excuse for avoiding discussions. Students will naturally learn what they don’t know, or they question, by finding a knowledgeable source to fill this gap; a person, book, internet, etc. This is known as the “debater’s argument” or the “debater’s paradox” (p. 34).  When the student attains this information, this makes the knowledge legitimate; legitimacy does not occur because of the source but rather the acquisition. The appealing part of this process is that the students quickly realize they do not have to get learning from an “authority” figure; they create their own learning. This process of inquiry based learning teaches the students: 1.) understanding can be reached through group inquiry, 2.) they can select the questions/interests to explore in depth, 3.) when there are contradictions they can resolve them, 4.) assistance in identifying matches/mismatches in their reasoning, and 5.) new questions can be developed for future explorations.  This type of approach is not only successful in a group setting but also for individual self- learning. For example, if students use a journal to log in their questions and problem-solving thought processes, students will begin to “understand the story better”, “grasp a profound general principle about the world”, and develop “an intelligent method of reading” (p. 38).

The “Scientific” Spirit of the Seminar

The open-ended seminar approach is basically a scientific method for using mutual inquiry to “formulate hypotheses and test them against experience” (p. 39). Based on this assumption, the hypothesis must be repeated and be public for it to be valid. It is also important for the students to remember that the “truths established by science” are not absolute; they should always be open to revision (p. 39). When setting up for this approach, the teacher should realize there is not a set formula for facilitating open-ended seminar. While it is helpful for students to be in charge of their own learning to make it personal to them, there are appropriate times for the teacher to interject his/her opinions, restate what they are hearing, and allow for opportunities to tell the students significant information to help them in their inquiry. The difficult part for the teacher is when to intervene. It is not uncommon for most of the class to used hypothesizing questions. Permitting this uncomfortable quiet time when the students want to turn to the teacher for direction is difficult but it is time well-spent. When they do begin soliciting questions, write them on a board so they are visible throughout the lesson. This allows the students to not assume that the first thoughts are the best, it gives them time to “hear, read, digest, and ponder”, it provides a serious tone to the importance of this stage, allows for deliberation, and, in addition to creating a starting point, gives them unresolved issues to think about (p. 40). If the students know the teacher is not grading their conversations and they can’t present their questions in a written format, this usually creates stronger motivation for them to understand the text. Aside from getting everyone to read the book, the spontaneous conversation that can arise is usually the most difficult part for the teacher and they need to ready for these surprises.

 What Can a Teacher Do to Help?

The teacher has several functions when organizing an open-ended seminar. They need to be able to shift the attention from themselves as the source of knowledge to the comments being made. Next, sometimes it is beneficial for the teacher to pose useful questions to contribute to the discussions, as long as they don’t interpret it for them. The teacher also needs to help the class stay focused and productive as well as keep the conversations civil and orderly. Lastly, the teacher can help summarize key points and guide them in the right direction for future classes.

There are other kinds of discussion the teacher can use besides open-ended seminar that will still encourage group discussion. First, the students can present something that demonstrates their process of inquiry. Second, out-of-class study groups can be created in which a structure is given to encourage worthwhile exploration but students talk without the presence of the teacher. This type of group can be done through pre-seminar groups (scheduled immediately prior to the class), writing groups (working together to create questions, drafts, and editing for papers), and pre-exam groups (students meet to respond to future exam questions). Third, students can be organized into in-class study groups where the students create pre-written questions for an exam/project. Finally, if good teaching and learning is occurring, informal out-of-class groups might result. This is when students continue the topic discussions outside of the classroom, into the informal part of their lives. 

Finkel, D. L. (2000). Teaching with your mouth shut. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.