Harkness Hybrid: Letting Go the Reins at the Middle School Harkness Table

[Shore history teacher Gwen Sneeden teaches a workshop for secondary school English and history teachers in Phillips Exeter's summer Exeter Humanities Institute. This essay appeared in the booklet for participants.]

A friend’s father once told me that “hybrid vigor” was the best way to produce intelligent, curious children. When I transfer this genetic reasoning to my teaching philosophy, I find I agree with his sentiment. Middle school students have always been a perplexing lot to the rest of us, and they require a variety of strategies and activities to learn effectively and enduringly. Most importantly, they need to be at the center of their learning. The Harkness approach puts them there.

Five years ago the department where I teach history decided to embrace the Harkness pedagogy as a way to teach primary sources in our Grade 8 history curriculum. It has been so successful that we have incorporated elements of it down into the lower grades. Developing a classroom of fully engaged middle schoolers makes a lot of sense: it integrates fully with their state of being, especially social and cognitive development. Sitting 12 to 14 young people around a table and asking them to think and talk combines the very best of what this age group wants: to be treated with respect, to be in charge, and to talk.

Middle schoolers have certain characteristics unique to their tribe. Not only are they growing physically, they also have a strong need to belong to a group. The Harkness pedagogy interacts fluidly with the cognitive growth spurts and the need for energy release that middle schoolers are experiencing. When my students gather at the Harkness table for a discussion, each of them knows that his or her voice matters. They are part of a collaborative dynamic that uses extended conversations, which help them understand their ideas are real, valued, and meaningful. As the Ancient Greeks knew millennia ago, early adolescence was the time when reason first developed, but it was always tainted by a lack of impulse control. Since middle schoolers are challenged by self-regulation, the best learning environment for them is one that requires them to practice that important skill, and blends it with opportunities for movement. It’s part of the use-it-or-lose-it principle of brain development. If they are encouraged to be held accountable for their own learning, and the classroom environment is one that (from the start) establishes an atmosphere of trust, as well as one that respects where they are in their personal development, the measurable results by mid-year are impressive. This is active learning at its finest.

This style of learning is flexible and authentic, and it has the potential to reach all types of learners, from the most socially immature to the strongest abstract thinker. Middle school is a critical stage of learning, in which students begin shifting to higher order thinking ability, and getting students to work in a socially integrative environment not only strengthens peer relationships, it also allows them to enjoy the intellectual pull and push from each other without a teacher standing in their way. When I ask my students what they like about this type of learning, their answers reflect the genuine nature of the class; nothing feels fake or irrelevant, so they don’t consider the study of history to be a waste of time. They appreciate that it is not memorization, though they see the value in remembering certain facts in order to have an intelligent conversation on, say, the apathy of many colonists at the time of the American Revolution. They enjoy hearing each other’s opinions, and they understand that the long-term results of this class help them build confidence in expressing their own ideas. They also like to challenge each other, teasing out a topic or theme to get at the core of someone’s opinion. My students demand fair treatment, and they are often outraged at rules, regulations, or interactions that they deem unfair and belittling. The balance between challenging each other respectfully on the one hand, and being perceived as antagonistic on the other is a delicate one, and it needs careful cultivation and attention. The goal is for students to develop learning attitudes and behaviors that set the stage for them to pursue curiosity whenever they feel like it. In a Harkness classroom, students learn to ask hard questions of themselves and others, and they develop the capacity to observe, listen, and, usually, not interrupt. It’s a full integration of knowledge and skills, including empathic understanding. Students are interested in each other, they learn to work effectively together, they make the decisions about what to discuss, and they are integral to the outcome. There is lots of room for student initiative, and the sense of optimism is palpable whenever you enter a discussion-based classroom. This is a very satisfying experience for everyone, students and teacher alike.

But, still, they are middle-schoolers, and not everything has to be treated with intellectual gravitas. Besides the need to talk, middle-schoolers need to move, as well. They need the space to be a little bit silly sometimes. I used to teach modern languages and ESL, and I have borrowed heavily from the activities in those classes and tweaked them for use in my history classes. I have a bank of activities to draw on when I sense the class needs to re-focus. This combination of strategies and activities enhances and increases the vitality of the learning experience. It doesn't always have to be discussion, but it does always have to be student-centered and student driven. While I am sure there are purists who would balk at the notion of games and playful interactions in a classroom with a big, imposing Harkness table, I have a hunch that Edward Harkness might have enjoyed some of these activities as a middle-schooler, not just as a self-described “middling” student, which he specified in his original proposal. These activities serve to make the class more of a hybrid, where students can engage in both child-like and young adult-like behavior and learning experiences, and students of any skill level can participate comfortably. The purpose is to change the pace for my students, but to keep the learning process invigorating and intellectual. It in no way diminishes their interest in discussions, but it does give them the opportunity to work together in a different way while still being true to the philosophy of engaging all students at all times, and for those students to have a personal stake in environment.

I love this style of teaching because it allows for flexibility, fluidity, and experimentation. There is no rigid code to it. My classroom embraces—first and foremost—trust, and then surprise and divergent thinking to generate real discussion. Students feel successful because they drive the learning and they know this. They know they are not restricted to a definitive answer—there is no right and wrong—and they work hard to probe and discover deeper understanding to which they themselves guide each other. This is not about best practices; it’s about building real relationships between students and knowledge, and it’s about a commitment to deep principles of unquestionable learning. When you let go the reins as a middle school teacher, you promote broad-ranging learning that has a positive effect on students’ motivation to learn that will last a lifetime.

Back

Harkness Hybrid: Letting Go the Reins at the Middle School Harkness Table

Shore Country Day School