It is common for teachers to have some students who refuse to speak or participate on classroom activities or discussions. Many believe that participation in class is very useful learn ing tool for students that teachers use to evaluate and guide their student’s learning. Thus, when certain students do not participate, teachers and students  alike lose out on a good learning opportunity. This recipe addresses the role of the spotlight effect as a reason why students do not participate in class.               

Spotlight effect is the egocentric bias in which people think that their actions or appearance are under the scrutiny of those around them, as if there was a theatrical spotlight shining upon them. However,  this perception is a bias because, usually, those surrounding them are playing them little attention. In classrooms, both teachers and students can fall prey to spotlight effect. For teachers the spotlight effect is less of a problem because their students actually are watching them closely. Foe students, however the spotlight effect can be more detrimental. The bias and fear of fellow students scrutinizing, ridiculing, and judging can prevent a student from contributing his or her thoughts in class discussions or offering participation in class demonstration. In truth, student’s perception are merely a bias that needs to overcome. Otherwise, the student may lose out on opportunities to gain better understanding of concepts and materials in class.

This recipe is for secondary school classroom settings. It involves creating a community of understood support and non-judgement to combat the role of spotlight effect in classroom participation. At the beginning of the year, students will write down two characteristics that describe environments or situations where they felt safe to share something about themselves. The teachers will collect this characteristics and compile them onto a list for all the students to see. As a group, students will review each of the characteristics. And discuss how these characteristics help to create a safe environment for class participation.

Then, students will sign a contract indicating that they agree to work together to create and maintain this safe environment. This creates an understanding and expectation among the students to contribute to the safe environment. The next part of this recipe depends upon the facilitation of the teacher. To encourage each student to take part in this discussion, the teachers begin each discussion with a question that allows for a variety of responses and entry points. An example of this kind of questioning is a noticing question such as, “What was the first thing you noticed when you looked at this puzzle?”. Question like this ask for very specific things, but do not seek out a “right” answer, so that answers are not limited to only a few responses. Every students should not be able to contribute an answers . If some students do not volunteer participation, teachers can invite this students to contribute to the discussion. The desired result of this protocol is for the student to acclimate to class participation through the combination of community environment and discussion facilitation method. Further, since the environment and question do not promote scrutiny or judgement, the student will became more aware that spotlight effect. With more participation, the student will become more aware effect is a bias and teachers could even gradually include constructive critical feedback to reduce student’s fear of scrutiny.

This recipe’s implementation challenges include the teacher’s ability to facilitate this type of discussion and students willingness to participate. If students do not care about community and safe learning environments then teachers may need to spend some time initially helping students become invested in the classroom community.

By: Lota B. De Leon | Principal I | Mt. View Elementary School | Mariveles, Bataan