How To Start a Quiet Riot

1
How To Start a Quiet Riot

• Brian Kelley
• EDU 557
• Dr. Trish Lichau
• Summer 2008

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Four Helpful Listening Strategies for Teachers

• 1. Seek to understand instead of seeking to be
  understood
• 2. Apply a non-judgmental approach with an
  ability to clear your mind, listen, and reflect
• 3. Give the speaker your undivided attention
• 4. Use silence effectively
• (Lichau, 2008)?

3
(the science in silence)

• Some measure of silence is endemic to all of
  these strategies, yet what constitutes effective
  or productive silence? Are there different kinds
  of silence? And if so, when is one kind of
  silence more appropriate than another?

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PHENOMENA PEOPLE FEAR MOST

• 1. Death
• 2. Silence
• 3. Public Speaking
• 4. Flying
• 5. Dogs
• 6. Spiders
• (Kelly, 2000)?

5
(the science in silence)

• People who can suspend discourse think and speak
  better when they turn it back on. --James
  Moffett
• (Suhor, 1992)?

6
(the science in silence)

• Many studies have been done on patterns of
  speaking in classrooms, often with a gender
  focus. They reveal that boys and men claim a lot
  of speaking time, interrupt more frequently,
  access the teacher's attention considerably more
  often, etc. But there is very little research on
  silence. (Briskin, 2000)?

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WHAT DO YOU FIND TO BE CONTROVERSIAL ABOUT
SILENCE?

• Its
• boring uncomfortable
• ambiguous sleepy confusing
• spiteful to become invisible
  embarrassing
• spiritual mumbo-jumbo intimidating
• deafening a power trip
• lacking focus awkward a form of
  apathy
• a secret I'm keeping from you
• the sign of a bad teacher
• NOT A STANDARD

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(the science in silence)?

• Teachers' silence about silence is very
  significant.
• (Briskin, 2000)?

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(the science in silence)

• There are as many kinds of silence as there are
  of relevant sounds.
• (Bilmes, 1994)?

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(the science in silence)

• There are two general categories of silence
• absolute silence, or the absence of sound, and
  notable silence, or the relevant absence of a
  particular kind of sound
• (Jaworski Sachdev, 1998).

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(the science in silence)

• For the purposes of this discussion we will be
  examining more closely a notable silence that
  fosters learning. We hope to acknowledge and
  avoid a silence rooted in the dynamics of power
  (where the teacher is imposing silence on
  students, sometimes in a punitive manner).
  Instead, we are interested in a silence for
  thought that encourages greater discussion and
  wider involvement.

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(the science in silence)

• Silence is a key to understanding many of the
  subjects of transcendence toward which
  literature, the arts, and productive living point
  us.
• -- Charles Suhor

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(the science in silence)

• silent pedagogy where the teacher makes
  conscious decisions to abstain from intervention
  based on continuous sensitive readings of the
  learning environment. (Ollin, 2008)?

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(the science in silence)

• Many important class activities are imbued with
  silence peer review, composition, written
  observations of experiments, silent reading,
  craft or shop activities, and more. It is
  critical to view these quiet periods as essential
  for learning. They are not inactive,
  language-deficient, lost moments in school time.
  Rather, they are multi-modal opportunities for
  all learners to upload, process, and reflect on
  their learning.

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(the science in silence)

• Student silence typically indicates any of the
  following symptoms (1) apathy toward the topic
  at hand or to the learning process itself (2) a
  student who is not comprehending, is overwhelmed,
  or is bored (3) a student who is isolated from
  the learning community and/or (4) a student who
  has not learned the value of or strategies of
  engagement or who does not appreciate or believe
  in that value.
• (Petress, 2001)?

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(the science in silence)

• Except in certain contexts, the meaning of any
• silence is inherently ambiguous and therefore
  subject to misinterpetation and misevaluation.
  This highlights the need for careful and
  sensitive handling by teachers of student
  silences in the classroom. The reticent student
  is less likely to apply, extend, or transfer what
  is learned than are non-reticent students.
  Application, extension, and transference are
  indirectly, but cogently, related to dialog since
  they require cooperation, risk taking, trust,
  acceptance, and tolerance with others as does
  dialog. The reticent student is typically
  self-absorbed and needs compassionate, but
  insistent, encouragement and enablement to
  participate. (Petress, 2001)?

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REASONS WHY STUDENTS ARE RETICENT TO ACTIVELY OR
EQUALLY PARTICIPATE IN DISCUSSION

• 1) low self-esteem
• 2) fear of being ridiculed should they
• inappropriately or inaccurately respond
• 3) fear of success
• 4) cultural differences
• 5) to avoid conflict
• 6) communication apprehension -- - a clinical
  fear of communicating with or in the presence of
  others
• (Petress, 2001)?

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(the science in silence)?

• In my experience, pro-active discussions which
  engage students in negotiating ground rules about
  speaking and silence can be effective in
  reconfiguring classroom dynamics. Such
  discussions name speaking and silence as
  political and relational, create the conditions
  for interrogating accepted classroom practices,
  and offer students the authority to interrupt and
  revision them. Putting silence on the classroom
  agenda is very politicizing for students who have
  blamed themselves for their silence. It
  challenges speaking students to a greater self
  consciousness of their voice and how much space
  they claim.
• (Briskin, 2000)?

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(the science in silence)

• A 1998 English study (Jaworski Sachdev) found
  that students in rural and urban inner-city
  schools valued quiet time more highly during
  class when compared with students in suburban
  schools. Silence was found to be important for
  student learning, but not necessarily for
  teaching.

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(the science in silence)

• From a conceptual point of view, our research
  demonstrates that, apart from being a linguistic
  reflex of the lack of communication,
  communication breakdown, feelings of negativity
  and conflict, silence is also a positive
  communicative item. In the case of this study it
  seems to be positively viewed as a facilitative
  device enabling students to gain access,
  organise, and absorb new material.
• (Jaworski and Sachdev, 1998)?

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(the science in silence)

• Silence does not need to involve student
  reluctance, reticence, submissiveness,
  invisibility, or teacher-enforced control.
  Silence CAN mean that thinking is going on for
  the sake of more active discussion in a
  subsequent sequence.

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(the science in silence)

• When silence is effectively used the quality of a
  students thought is given the best possible
  chance to deepen and to become further
  represented in rich expression. To be
  comfortable with conversational silence, we must
  first be comfortable with the practice of
  listening.

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(the science in silence)

• Employ Wait Time I/II of 5 seconds and 20
  seconds during student responses. Have students
  do individual work prior to pairs work so they
  can collect their thoughts. Give prep times
  prior to debate and discussion. Have students
  write in class after their reading.
• The overall quality of student contribution will
  increase as a result.

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(the science in silence)?

• Great scientists and artists have credited their
  creative breakthroughs to periods of quiet.
  Einstein even dissociates thought from the
  experience of mental quiet, saying that thinking
  only plays a subordinate part in the brief,
  decisive phase of the creative act itself.
  Mozart and Beethoven isolated themselves in
  silent rooms for days!
• Not exactly practical, but...

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(the science in silence)?

• "All man's miseries derive from not being able to
  sit quietly in a room alone." --Blaise Pascal

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TYPES OF SILENCE

• The silence of voices not present
• The silence due to fear and intimidation
• The silence from shame, from undervaluing oneself
  and one's knowledge
• The silence that preserves privilege and avoids
  risk
• The silence that refuses responsibility to the
  group and to the collective learning process
• The silence which is about listening and sharing
  space and which builds the classroom
  collectivity
• The silence which actively resists oppression
• The silence that is busy creating
• The silence that reflects on that creation.
• --Silences 1-7, (Briskin, 2000)?

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(the science in silence)?

• RESOURCES