Harkness table

Last updated
Instructor and students at Techie Youth, engaged in the Harkness discussion-based teaching method Harkness-method.jpg
Instructor and students at Techie Youth, engaged in the Harkness discussion-based teaching method
Students and instructor seated around a Harkness table at The College Preparatory School in Oakland, California College Prep Harkness Table.jpg
Students and instructor seated around a Harkness table at The College Preparatory School in Oakland, California

The Harkness table, Harkness method, or Harkness discussion is a teaching and learning method involving students seated in a large, oval configuration to discuss ideas in an encouraging, open-minded environment with only occasional or minimal teacher intervention.

Contents

Overview

The Harkness method is in use at many American boarding schools and colleges and encourages discussion in classes. The style is related to the Socratic method. Developed at Phillips Exeter Academy, [1] the method's name comes from the oil magnate and philanthropist Edward Harkness, who presented the school with a monetary gift in 1930. It has been adopted in numerous schools, such as The Dunham School, [2] St. Mark's School of Texas, The College Preparatory School, The Masters School, and The Episcopal School of Dallas, where small class-size makes it effective. However, Harkness remains impractical for schools with larger class sizes. Harkness described its use as follows:

What I have in mind is [a classroom] where [students] could sit around a table with a teacher who would talk with them and instruct them by a sort of tutorial or conference method, where [each student] would feel encouraged to speak up. This would be a real revolution in methods. [3]

Harkness practices can vary, most notably between humanities subjects such as English and history and technical subjects such as math and physics. [4]

Students at The Episcopal School of Dallas engaged around a Harkness table. Harkness Table ESD.jpg
Students at The Episcopal School of Dallas engaged around a Harkness table.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Socratic method</span> Type of cooperative argumentative dialogue

The Socratic method is a form of argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions.

A teaching method is a set of principles and methods used by teachers to enable student learning. These strategies are determined partly on subject matter to be taught and partly by the nature of the learner. For a particular teaching method to be appropriate and efficient it has take into account the learner, the nature of the subject matter, and the type of learning it is supposed to bring about.

Phillips Academy is a co-educational university-preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year. The school is in Andover, Massachusetts, United States, 25 miles north of Boston. Phillips Academy has 1,131 students, and is highly selective, accepting 9% for the 2022–2023 school year. It is part of the Eight Schools Association and the Ten Schools Admissions Organization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phillips Exeter Academy</span> School in Exeter, New Hampshire

Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational university preparatory private school for boarding and day students in grades 9 through 12, and offers a secondary postgraduate program. Located in Exeter, New Hampshire, it is one of the oldest secondary schools in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Harkness</span> American philanthropist

Edward Stephen Harkness was an American philanthropist. Given privately and through his family's Commonwealth Fund, Harkness' gifts to private hospitals, art museums, and educational institutions in the Northeastern United States were among the largest of the early twentieth century. He was a major benefactor to Columbia University, Yale University, Harvard University, Phillips Exeter Academy, St. Paul's School, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1934.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Active learning</span> Educational technique

Active learning is "a method of learning in which students are actively or experientially involved in the learning process and where there are different levels of active learning, depending on student involvement." Bonwell & Eison (1991) states that "students participate [in active learning] when they are doing something besides passively listening." According to Hanson and Moser (2003) using active teaching techniques in the classroom can create better academic outcomes for students. Scheyvens, Griffin, Jocoy, Liu, & Bradford (2008) further noted that "by utilizing learning strategies that can include small-group work, role-play and simulations, data collection and analysis, active learning is purported to increase student interest and motivation and to build students ‘critical thinking, problem-solving and social skills". In a report from the Association for the Study of Higher Education, authors discuss a variety of methodologies for promoting active learning. They cite literature that indicates students must do more than just listen in order to learn. They must read, write, discuss, and be engaged in solving problems. This process relates to the three learning domains referred to as knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA). This taxonomy of learning behaviors can be thought of as "the goals of the learning process." In particular, students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The College Preparatory School</span> Private college preparatory school in Oakland, California, US

The College Preparatory School is a four-year private non-residential high school in Oakland, California most known for its placement rates into elite colleges and its speech and debate program. The school's motto is Mens Conscia Recti, a Latin phrase adapted from Virgil's Aeneid that means "a mind aware of what is right".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lecture</span> Oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject

A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history, background, theories, and equations. A politician's speech, a minister's sermon, or even a business person's sales presentation may be similar in form to a lecture. Usually the lecturer will stand at the front of the room and recite information relevant to the lecture's content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phillips Exeter Academy Library</span> School library in New Hampshire

Phillips Exeter Academy Library is a library that serves Phillips Exeter Academy, an independent boarding school located in Exeter, New Hampshire. It is the largest secondary school library in the world, containing 160,000 volumes over nine levels with a shelf capacity of 250,000 volumes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen V. Harkness</span> American businessman

Stephen Vanderburgh Harkness was an American businessman based in Cleveland, Ohio. He invested as a silent partner with John D. Rockefeller, Sr. in the founding of Standard Oil and served as a director of Standard Oil until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbot Academy</span> Independent, boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts, United States

Abbot Academy was an independent boarding preparatory school for women boarding and day care for students in grades 9–12 from 1828 to 1973. Located in Andover, Massachusetts, Abbot Academy was notable as one of the first incorporated secondary schools for educating young women in New England. It merged with Phillips Academy in 1973 and campus buildings along School Street continue to be used for the combined school. Some Abbot traditions continue at the combined private boarding school such as Parent's Weekend. Since the 40th anniversary in 2013 of the merger of the two schools, there has been renewed interest in Abbot's history and traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lancaster Country Day School</span> School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States

Lancaster Country Day School (LCDS) is a private, secular, coeducational college preparatory school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States. The school has 600 students in preschool through twelfth grade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Class size</span> Number of students in a class

Class size refers to the number of students a teacher faces during a given period of instruction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Hassan</span> First Gentleman of New Hampshire

Thomas Edward Hassan is an American educator who served as the first gentleman of New Hampshire from 2013 to 2017 as the husband of governor Maggie Hassan. He has served as the President of School Year Abroad since June 2016. Previously, he worked at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he began as the Director of College Counseling in 1989, worked as the Dean of Admissions, and was the 14th principal from 2009 until his retirement from the school in 2015. In 2016, Hassan was censured by The Association of Boarding Schools for failing to disclose sexual misconduct of a former teacher at Phillips Exeter. During his 20 years at Exeter, Hassan taught mathematics and junior studies, served as dorm affiliate, and advised student organizations, including Best Buddies and the Random Acts of Kindness club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flipped classroom</span> Instructional strategy and a type of blended learning

A flipped classroom is an instructional strategy and a type of blended learning, which aims to increase student engagement and learning by having pupils complete readings at home and work on live problem-solving during class time. This pedagogical style moves activities, including those that may have traditionally been considered homework, into the classroom. With a flipped classroom, students watch online lectures, collaborate in online discussions, or carry out research at home, while actively engaging concepts in the classroom, with a mentor's guidance.

Feminist pedagogy is a pedagogical framework grounded in feminist theory. It embraces a set of epistemological theories, teaching strategies, approaches to content, classroom practices, and teacher-student relationships. Feminist pedagogy, along with other kinds of progressive and critical pedagogy, considers knowledge to be socially constructed.

The United States Invitational Young Physicists Tournament (USIYPT) is an annual physics research and debate tournament for high school students, held the last weekend in January. School-based teams of four students investigate several undergraduate-level research problems in preparation for the tournament. The competition itself consists of "physics fights," student-led debates over the quality of each team's solution. Teams are judged on their own solutions to the problems and on their ability to engage in evaluation and discussion of other teams' solutions. The Harker School of California and Phillips Exeter Academy of New Hampshire have each earned three championships, the most of any school. The 2023 tournament was hosted on February 4th-5th, 2023 at The Nueva School, with Nueva defending their champion title from the prior year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Learning space</span> Physical setting for a learning environment

Learning space or learning setting refers to a physical setting for a learning environment, a place in which teaching and learning occur. The term is commonly used as a more definitive alternative to "classroom," but it may also refer to an indoor or outdoor location, either actual or virtual. Learning spaces are highly diverse in use, configuration, location, and educational institution. They support a variety of pedagogies, including quiet study, passive or active learning, kinesthetic or physical learning, vocational learning, experiential learning, and others. As the design of a learning space impacts the learning process, it is deemed important to design a learning space with the learning process in mind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Perry</span> American educator

Lewis Perry was an American educator and the eighth principal of Phillips Exeter Academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Beacon Academy</span> Private international school in the Philippines

The Beacon Academy is a private international college-preparatory school in Biñan, Laguna, Philippines that offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. It is a sister school of the Beacon School in Taguig, Metro Manila. The Beacon Academy brands itself as "an international school rooted in Filipino culture and ethos."

References

  1. "The Amazing Harkness Philosophy". Phillips Exeter Academy. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
  2. "Harkness". The Dunham School. Retrieved 2023-06-09.
  3. Christophe G. Courchesne, "'A Suggestion of a Fundamental Nature': Imagining a Legal Education of Solely Electives Taught as Discussions", Rutgers Law Record 29, no. 21 (2005): 26.
  4. "How You'll Learn". Phillips Exeter Academy. Retrieved 2018-06-30.