Reconceptualizing Participation Grading as Skill-Building
Tracking participation yourself is tedious, not transparent, and prone to implicit bias—and students often think only extroverts are good participants. Gillis’ method (also detailed in this journal article) addresses these problems by defining participation broadly and encouraging students to develop new skills.
We accomplish this skill building together. Students complete a “Participation Goals” form at the beginning of the semester (see sample here) that asks students to reflect on their current skill levels in 5 dimensions: attendance/tardiness, preparation for class, participation in small group discussions, participation in full class discussions, and participation in other ways. Note that these are the five dimensions I choose to focus on in most of my courses, but faculty from across disciplines, institutions, and countries have written to me saying that they used this system and adjusted the dimensions based on their own course goals.