<p>For those parents and students that are new to the Harkness Table how is it going? </p>
<p>My d was new to the idea and loves it. She says it reminds her of her K-2 grammar school which has many classes taught in the Socratic method. </p>
<p>My d says that most (95%) of her classmates come prepared and have something to contribute to the class discussions. She loves that all students get to "lead" the class discussions. I was convinced that my d would do well in this learning environment and her first grades proved this to be true.</p>
<p>Well if the avg class size at DA is 12, and 11 of 12 students come prepared that would be 92% or closer to 90%. But maybe some come partially prepared???</p>
<p>just got the harkness tables last year and i love them. They definitely create a unique learning experience. class discussions are greatly improved and everyone seems much more involved in the class overall.</p>
<p>@middle when Alex said 95%, I think this wasn’t an exact statistical data point, it was more of a way of expressing that nearly all kids prepare.</p>
<p>This is just a two-day, parent’s week-end observation, but I saw the Harkness table used differently, but well in math, language, and science classes. </p>
<p>In math and language, students were mostly writing answers to homework on the board and then explaining their answers/asking questions of one another. Of course, they could do this in rows as well, I suppose, but there was lots of student-to-student eye contact and collaboration around the table that the Harkness table seemed to facilitate. The table also kept the focus off the teacher and on the class as a whole, though the teachers did talk and direct discussion more in those classes than in humanities.</p>
<p>In the science class I observed, the Harkness table was used for the first half of the class (the classroom also had lab tables where they worked for the second half). The teacher reviewed the content using a proxima projector, but there was an informal and friendly flow of conversation about the topic around the table–and when a student asked a question, another student was as likely to answer the question as the teacher. In fact, my son’s teacher noted in his term evaluation that he had to learn to address his questions to the class rather than to her in the first week or two of the class, so it’s clear to me that the Harkness method is valued in that classroom as well.</p>
<p>Depends on the table. My S told me that he likes the Harkness Method in some classes, but not others. Interestingly, his discontent doesn’t turn on the course, but the teacher. Some teachers do a good job guiding a discussion and allowing all students a chance to express their views. Other teachers step back and welcome the kids to a bloody free-or-all where the loudest and most aggressive suck up all the air and ideas from the room. It seems to me that teachers must be well trained and versed in the finer points of the Harkness Method before they let this tactic dominate all other techniques of learning and teaching, IMHO.</p>
<p>toombs-it surely depends on the teacher and to some extent the subject. </p>
<p>For my d I was able to work it in one-on-one, more the Socratic Method, no text per say but a flowchart of such that I wanted to cover.</p>
<p>As a teacher, I have found it the most difficult method to master in terms making it work and engaging. It is doubly difficult in the field of Chemistry. It is a wonderful method to use with my most advance classes(~12-15 students), but with beginning courses it is almost a waste of time, primarily due to the number of students ~30.</p>
<p>You must also have students that really buy into true learning, not just taught at. Having or controlling students to be considerate and actually listen to each other is also dictated by the kids past education environment.</p>
<p>The Harkness Table is working out great and one of the best classes at Exeter for me is actually Science. However, as preps the class can go quiets some times especially in first period Religion. All in All, it works out really well even though that wasn’t what actually drew me to Exeter.</p>