Have you ever stood in front of a group of people, whether as the sage on the stage in a college classroom, as a small group leader, or as the supervisor in a business meeting and experienced that sinking feeling when you ask a question and no one says a word? That awkward silence continues, eyes drop down to the floor, and a large lump emerges in your throat? Because these experiences terrify me, I constantly seek resources for how to conduct interactive meetings, ways to jumpstart discussion, and methodologies for creative approaches to introduce a new concept via lecture.
Two valuable resources that have come to my attention lately which offer preventative strategies for handling awkward situations as described above are Brookfield’s The Skillful Teacher and an article by Jennifer Gonzalez from the Cult of Pedagogy. Gonzalez offers several insights into why one might receive Nothing But Crickets such as the simple fact that “people don’t want to look stupid…they assume everyone else in the room gets it and they don’t want to look like the lone dummy.” Additionally, she opines that often speakers are asking for too much. “For example, if you ask, ‘What is your favorite song?’ some people will rack their brains trying to think of a song they like more than any other.” A better approach, Gonzalez advises, is to “just ask them to think of a song they really like, that’s much easier.”
Gonzalez and Brookfield both offer what I consider to be extremely helpful strategies for methods to increase audience participation to help avoid the Nothing But Crickets standoff. While Brookfield outlines various creative approaches which should be implemented when using discussion methods, Gonzalez offers six techniques to garner increased participation: (1) explain what kind of response you want; (2) ask for a show of hands; (3) ask one person a direct question; (4) have everyone write down a response first; (5) do a think-pair-share; and (6) do a better check for understanding. The bottom line for Gonzalez, “If you feel like you’re doing all the talking up there, and you want to get more from the people listening to you, you might just need to make a few small changes to your delivery to turn a one-way lecture to a much better conversation.”
After attempting some of the small changes recommended by Gonzalez, a presenter might want to delve into some of Brookfield’s suggestions for lecturing creatively such as “deliberately introducing periods of silence” or outlining discussion conversational roles so that the audience knows “that they have a particular task to fulfill” which “seems to remove some of their performance anxiety.” Dr. David Thomas, a professor of history at Union University, demonstrated the period of silence well in a faculty workshop a few years ago when he blackened the projector screen to pause and give the audience time to reflect. Next fall, I hope to implement the conversational roles in sport marketing when students are leading the discussion about the learning module they created. Using Brookfield’s roles such as “devil’s advocate, detective, and umpire” should clarify how students are specifically expected to engage with their peers when listening and discussing new topics.
Brookfield offers some wise advice after over forty years of teaching, “Good discussions are not mysterious or serendipitous. They depend on good planning and preparation, not personal chemistry. Ground rules, conversational protocols, participation rubrics, and other activities provide helpful scaffolding for introverts and stop a dominant few from monopolizing the discussion.”
Now that we have been provided with some techniques to avoid Nothing But Crickets, I open the dialogue for you to add effective strategies you have witnessed, or even tested yourself, that allow engagement and discussion to flow through a group. Please feel free to add to the comments below.
Could not resist adding this bit of humor as a sport management professor and in light of the discussion on discussions and teaching! ESPN’s Teacher does a halftime interview.
References:
ESPN. (2020, February 19). Teacher does a halftime interview. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=617281608840371
Gonzalez, J. (2018, August 18). When you get nothing but crickets. Cult of Pedaogy. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/crickets/
Flourishing @ Life 
Pingback: Follow Through – Flourishing @ Life