Many students in introductory psychology classes are hesitant to ask questions or make comments in class. Some worry that their questions or comments may appear silly or stupid, some don't quite know how to formulate a good question, and still others are just plain shy.

One remedy to this is to make outside-of-the-classroom "question-asking" or "commenting" a required component of the course. There are at least two possible ways of doing this. The first is simply to ask students to jot questions or comments regarding class topics on a sheet of paper and periodically turn them in to you. The second is essentially the same, except it uses e-mail. The advantage of this mode of communication is 5-fold. First, students can develop their questions and comments in the privacy and comfort of their dorms or apartments and you can receive e-mail in the privacy and comfort of your office or home. Second, the electronic copy of the question/comment is less easy to lose or misplace than is a paper copy. Third, you don't have to wait until class to respond to the question/comment. Fourth, and perhaps most important, it removes public social pressure off the student so that he or she can develop a question/comment with less anxiety. And fifth, it does less harm to the environment since no trees were destroyed to facilitate student-teacher interaction.

The value of this exercise is really pedagogical--it represents a means of teaching students how to pose questions or make comments. By responding to poorly developed questions with gentle comments such as "Please make the question more specific" or "what argument can you make to support your point?," you may find that students begin to ask better, more thoughtful questions and generate more insightful comments. And, as many teachers have discovered, once students begin to feel comfortable corresponding via e-mail with you regarding their questions and comments, an interesting development takes place in the classroom--they start participating in class discussion more often! Used like this, e-mail may enhance the quantity and quality of interactions between students and teacher.

A final tip--dont' keep the really good questions sent to you via e-mail between just you and the student that wrote them. Ask the question's author if you can share the question with the class. This is an excellent means of developing rapport with the class as a whole and with the one student in particular. It gives students a sense that you care about them and what they are thinking about regarding course topics and leaves them with a sense of "ownership" of the course.

Try it--it really works.