As you know, this is my first experience with the Harkness Method. As is usual for me with such things, I research and tweak, reach out and learn. In my experience, things are usually far more grey than black or white.
With regards to Harkness Math, I came across the following two articles, both speaking to Harkness Math at Exeter:
Harkness - Cons/Negative
Harkness - Pros/Positive
As I've said, I'm quite impressed with the methodology; however, as one who has read the book "Quiet," I can certainly identify with the "Cons" article author. How do you effectively involve extroverts and introverts so that all are able to maximize their learning?
No matter the methodology, one of the struggles I've always found is getting students to ask questions when something is not clear, or not understood. I'm trying so hard to welcome (and appreciate) mistakes, but that doesn't mean that there's an increased willingness to make them publicly. The quiet students can easily slip under the radar and that's frustrating.
The basics of the Harkness Method for math, as I currently understand them, are:
1) working with math at a deeper, more applicable level.
2) owning the struggle
3) recognizing that, more often than not, learning comes from making mistakes
4) presenting your efforts in a coherent way
All of these things are VERY valuable, and the Harkness Method emphasizes all of them. What's important for the teacher is to keep the instruction on topic and to step in when necessary to answer questions, thus meeting the needs of those students looking for a bit more structure and direction than that provided only by the discussion. It's a fine line to walk.
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