The Disadvantage of Recitations

You try and raise your hand straight in the air, waving it a little, competing with your classmates for your teacher to call you. Once called, you stand up and give the answer to your teacher mouthed from the words of some author of a book whose some statements contradict those of other authors. Then, you sit back again, following the discussion with the pages of your book, anticipating in rage for the next question, while your snoozing seatmate starts to drool all over his notebook.

How many times have you encountered situations like these in the classroom?

While recitation may be one of the ways to train students to speak up regarding a topic, it may not always be effective, especially if a fixed response (a name of a person, date, place, or event) is expected by the teacher. The way I see it, not all “recitations” can be considered as “class participation”. The teacher asks a question, you find it in the text book, say it out loud in class – where is the part that zaps the neurons for creative and critical thinking? 

Sometimes I wonder why class participation is even graded. If the class is interested in the topic and the teacher is just as an effective in delivering the lecture, I do not see any reason why students would not participate. And by participate, I mean that it should not be confined to the typical teacher asks-student answers practice rather it must be composed of a healthy discussion, facilitated by broad questions from the teacher. Questioning of the facts by the students should also be encouraged and entertained allowing a more dynamic communication process between the learner and educator. Should grading class participation be really necessary, the quality of the answer must be the parameter, not just base the merit on how many times a student stood up and gave an answer. 

Another problem with recitations is that not everyone will have equal chances of answering as the teacher would be the one to select the lucky palm among a sea of raised hands. A better option to elicit a response from the students is by asking them to do an essay on the required topic.

To sum up, I believe that recitations is not that bad as long as it stimulates thinking, has a just system of selection, and has a clearly defined parameter for grading. I may not be an expert talking about education theory but as a student, I see what works and what doesn’t.

Photo from here