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Makale Özeti:
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According to the staff of the Department of English Language and Literature at
the University of Zenica, second year students are not easily motivated to
participate in classroom discussions. Most of the time, students are encouraged
to participate, but only a selected few do. When asked why that is so, students
reported that they feel uncomfortable, mostly because they feel that they have
noting important to share or that they are embarrassed to speak in front of their
colleagues. The author of this paper tried to encourage students to open up and
participate in classroom discussions. For the purpose of this research, the author
worked closely with second year students at the Department of English Language
and Literature, introducing a new approach to ensure maximum student
participation. The Socratic Circle approach was introduced and applied several
times throughout the semester, and the students provided feedback each time they
participated in the discussions. Two structures were used and the students were
given the opportunity to express their opinions about each, as well as to comment
about the Socratic Circle Rubric that was introduced for the purpose of grading
their participation. This paper describes the steps that were taken over a fourmonth
period. The author claims that by using the Socratic Circle approach, it is
possible to motivate every student to participate in classroom discussions on a
regular basis, and that the students appreciate the use of the Socratic Circle
Rubric because they know what is expected of them as well as how their
participation will be graded.
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