Magna 20 Minute Mentor | How Do I Include Introverts in Class Discussions?

In this Magna video, Ms. Nicki Monahan explains some of the challenges introverted students have with in-person class discussions and she proposes several strategies to help them participate. Ms. Monahan discusses that introversion needs to be understood as a basic human characteristic and temperament. It involves some fundamental personal dispositions and differences that can be manifested in the choices that people make.

An individual’s temperament influences their preferences for learning and introverts have certain ways they prefer to learn. Introverts are more comfortable with solitary learning, need adequate time to think before speaking, and prefer using writing to express themselves rather than verbal communications. Therefore, Ms. Monahan advises that these types of learners tend to struggle with in-class discussions and perform much better when provided with an online component to a discussion where they can reflect and post a written response. Another type of learning activity that can help promote participation by introverted learners is to assign “exit passes”. These involve having students reply to some questions or topics based on the discussion and turn in their written replies at the end of the class sessions.

Ms. Monahan also believes it is important to create some discussion strategies that allow introverts to feel more at ease with verbal contributions. She suggests that incorporating adequate “wait time” for students to reply to an inquiry can be very helpful for allowing introverted students time to reflect and organize their thoughts. Think-pair-share is also a useful activity for encouraging introverted learners to respond to a discussion question. They first express their thoughts with a partner, which can be less intimidating than participating with the whole class group. Next, the student partners work together to prepare their reply and then communicate those ideas back to the entire class.

View this video to learn more about Ms. Monahan’s methods for helping introverted participate with class activities. This Magna video addresses the LCCC Faculty Competency domains for Teaching and Learning as well as Diversity and Inclusion. This can be accessed by completing this one-time registration to view all the videos in the Magna 20 Minute Mentor series.