Can someone tell me about the Harkness method since it is so clearly used at Exeter? even the idea is exhilarating to me but i still have questions about it. What is the typical conversation/discussion like? In math classes would you spend the whole class discussing the answers to the homework?
Well I’lll use history class as an example. So, the teacher would say something like"What did you think of the reading last night and the author’s viewpoints" Then one person would start to talk about their opinion, followed by rebuttals and other comments. The teacher is barely involved in the discussion, but will sometimes poke their heads in if the conversation is getting a bit stale.
For math class, you would have around 8 problems to do for homework. The teacher would ask each student to do a problem on the board. If a student does not understand, the other students try to help them out. Again, the teacher is rarely involved. So yes, essentially you are talking about the homework for the whole period.
Hope this helps!