AIBU - or is my fellow student? What is 'normal' behaviour on an MA course?

[nonnomnom]

I've nearly finished a taught MA at a British university. There are many students from around the world and generally it tends to be the British students (including me) who put their hands up and volunteer answers to the course tutors during our weekly taught sessions (about 25-40 people in a room).

I'd assumed those who didn't contribute did so partly because of lack of confidence at speaking in a foreign language or in some cases I know (because they've admitted it!) that some Far Eastern students believe that student interaction is a bit pointless and they just want the teachers to tell them the 'right' answers.

But I was really shocked when I inadvertently stumbled across a bitching session by a couple of students on the course about those who participate actively in the course. I'd assumed that all native speakers would view interaction as positive and indeed, what we were there for! But here this was an American and Brit, really laying into those who put their hand up too much, saying that others want to speak too but think more slowly so they (the quick ones) should wait and give them a chance to speak. She was really vehement and I was a bit horrified to think that fellow students were thinking I was really rude because I hadn't 'waited' for them (obviously I had no way of knowing if they had great ideas brewing, were just shy, hadn't done the reading etc).

So what is normal/expected on an MA course? Were I and my 'chatty' fellow students being unspeakably insensitive and spotlight-hogging? Or was I being reasonable, and actually, active interaction and participation is what MA tutors wish to see and students ought to expect to do?

Advice please - bit late for me as I've nearly finished my course now and have been blithely chatty to date. But hoping all my fellow students haven't hated me as a result...

Maid:

I posted this thread to learn and be a better tutor. So bear with me. Your first paragraph (two posts up) was actually helpful. Do you have a link to any of that research?

As you may have gathered, I'm reasonably intellectually confident so no, I don't naturally 'get' the feeling intimidated thing. I'm a genuine egalitarian - I don't believe anyone is better or worse and we might as well all have a go. I hope I communicate that to my students...

For those worried about the well-being of my fellow students, you'll no doubt be deeply relieved to hear I've now finished my taught modules and have no plans to study further anywhere, so my interest in this is purely as a future tutor, not a fellow student.

Google scholar is a helpful place to start for research.

You can type in keywords and it will provide results - it's like google, but for academic papers.

Should add that it definitely wouldn't occur to me to blame my 'louder' students for wishing to interact. I do absolutely view it as my reponsibility to manage the class and to ensure the quieter students get heard. That's what I'm paid to do. My students - who've paid to be there - are being perfectly reasonable to wish to be heard. Of course some students will overstep the mark but I view it as my responsibility to control that, not the students.

So different views on responsibility here.

Jeanne - just used normal google to google you and discovered that, quelle surprise, you have vastly less experience than I do!

Who would have think it, eh?

For clarity: it just seems that a good tutor/lecturer shouldn't be asking this. And it's rather blithe for even a fellow student.

I agree. Some of the OP's earlier posts, including her first one, just don't give the impression of someone who's done any sustained, day-in-day-out teaching of student groups.

Since she won't expand on this, I can't help but suspect teaching 'plenty of MA students' may boil down to giving an isolated professional seminar here and there. I can see how, in that context, the talkers seem fantastic. It's different when you're trying to manage a group dynamic over a course that stretches for months. If you've been both an MA student and teacher, and are still 'struggling' to understand issues of participation and confidence, that's pretty odd.

thunk

Hate typos. :)

Nope, LadylikeCough, I've done vastly more teaching than 'the odd seminar'. No. I'm not going to clarify.

Clearly CPD is an entirely novel concept to you. Or you were Born Knowing Everything.

I'm now going to continue ignoring your goady posts.

non, I said upthread, I am relatively junior.

However, not quite junior enough to communicate the way you're doing here.

This is a MN thread, not an MA seminar. You do know the difference, don't you?

I would be somewhat surprised if you had a job if you spoke to your students the way you'd been addressing me!

...when you assumed I was an ignorant student.

I can be pretty sure you don't speak to your colleagues this way!

Can you?

I think most of my colleagues enjoy a good laugh.

So do my students, for that matter.

Look, bored of this.

If Maid would like to come back with links to relevant research, that would be great.

Or anyone else who can manage to stay on topic and explain how they (or possibly someone else they know well) would feel or has felt about interacting in an MA context.

I'd love to have slanging matches all night but have other things to do...

Is this a social work degree by any chance?

Nope.

Well, I doubt you're academic, as 1. Your posts don't scan correctly if that were the case, 2. You are apparently unaware of some of the subtleties of managing an academic classroom (like why any student wouldn't put their hand up, something that should have been part of your training and CPD on delivering effective teaching) and 3. I don't want to believe that an academic would be so outright nasty to a fellow academic.

So I'm with Ladylike. You're delivering some kind of professional teaching. You may be very good at it, I don't know. You won't admit that though, because you've set yourself up against particular academics here, for reasons I can't discern, and would view it as a climb down? Perhaps it threatens your intellectual equality? (It doesn't, that would be ridiculous). If you've taught in a professional setting, you may share experiences with academic teaching, but you may also have different experiences. That doesn't make the academics here sharing their experiences wrong about what might be true for an academic course.

I'm intrigued by your use of 'tutor' as well. That wouldn't be standard at my institute.

I'm not really interested in a thread about me and have no intention of revealing what I do or where I do it so thrilled though I am that I am so 'intriguing' if no-one has any more to add to the topic, I'm afraid I'll have to leave you guessing.

If you care to, you can explain your point 1 though.

Why should my posts scan?

Or you could post links to the vast amounts of research, which I'm hoping you weren't making up.

If you (normal) Google 'big fish little pond effect', you'll get lots of results from NCBI/journals.

Genuine question: Why are you being such an arse?

Specifically: Or you could post links to the vast amounts of research, which I'm hoping you weren't making up

LMGTFY

I've done an LLM and tutored.

I have nothing valuable to add apart from the observation that I cannot get my head round university students putting their hands up. this never happened in either my undergrad or postgrad experience. Very infantilising and hardly conducive to encouraging free-flowing discussion and debate.

Thanks for the links Maid.

I don't think I'm being 'an arse' - I think I've been remarkably polite considering some of the posts recently!

Anyway, feel this thread has probably descended beyond repair, but if anyone apart from me is actually still interested in the topic, I'd welcome further insight. No ill feelings, Maid.

I was really shocked when I first was in a class with loads of Americans that they seems SO chatty, answering every question incredibly confidently, using so many words I didn't know, making loads of statements that I viewed as showing off and basically trying to take over the lecture (vs respecting the authority and wisdom of the actual expert in the room, the lecturer). It was totally a cultural thing. I really remember being utterly shellshocked. Think I got used to it over time.

Bloody hell, this thread is like the OP is running a masterclass in how to lose friends and alienate people.

The thread's brill!

Have you ever raised any of these questions with your fellow tutors, non? What do they think?