When I first started teaching international students back in 2023, my classrooms were noticeably and unexpectedly quiet. The silence was neither confusion nor disengagement; it was something else. This became the starting point for thinking more deeply about classroom silence and what we, as teachers, can do to create spaces where students feel comfortable and enjoy learning. Trying to understand classroom silence requires us to understand our learners: who are they, where do they come from and why are they silent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the years, I came to realise that many of my students came from educational systems where the teacher traditionally held greater authority and was seen as the boss, the power, the sole source of knowledge, and where questioning, debating, or critically engaging with ideas in class, or disagreeing with the teacher, may not have been common features of their previous learning experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Research supports this; for example, Bai and Wang (2022)<\/a> found that international students studying in Australia tended to avoid classroom interaction, not due to disinterest, but because interrupting a teacher with questions or comments could be understood as disruptive (Hoang & Turner, 2024)<\/a>. However, classroom silence is not unique to international students. Students may remain quiet for many reasons, and encouraging participation is a challenge familiar to teachers across disciplines and cohorts. Dr Jinqi Xu\u2019s work with international students at the University of Sydney<\/a> similarly sheds light on the importance of understanding students\u2019 previous learning experiences and creating teaching practices that support students’ participation, belonging and motivation particularly in early weeks. For me, the question gradually shifted from \u201cWhy are my students silent?\u201d to \u201cWhat can I change in my teaching to invite students to participate?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beyond language barriers and cultural adjustment, international students often face what I call a student-power shock. This occurs when students who are accustomed to teacher-centred classrooms encounter learning environments that expect them to question, debate, collaborate, and assess one another. This shock, in my experience, is just as significant as the language and culture shocks we more commonly discuss, yet it receives far less attention in teaching practice. Although I first noticed this among international students, the challenge is much broader where many students can find the transition from listening to actively contributing difficult, particularly when participation requires them to take greater ownership of their learning. How do we, as teachers and academics, respond to this? How do we turn quiet classrooms into spaces where students feel safe to speak, question, and engage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n From my own experience through workshops, reading, and collaborating with colleagues, I found two effective classroom strategies that turned silent classrooms into busy beehives. The first is team-based learning (TBL), an active learning strategy that supports engagement, collaborative learning, and peer networking, where students work in small groups across the semester to build confidence, teamwork, and a shared sense of academic belonging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I began using TBL in my undergraduate academic writing classes and other units within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, particularly with large first-year cohorts. In my tutorials, students work in small teams, which I change every few weeks. This was partly shaped by student feedback, with students saying they wanted opportunities to work with and get to know different classmates. Rotating the teams helped students build connections beyond one small group, while still giving them enough time within each team to become comfortable contributing, questioning and disagreeing with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TBL was popularised by Michaelsen et al. (2002)<\/a> and has since been widely adopted across disciplines. Its structured sequence, individual readiness assurance, group readiness assurance, and application tasks mean that every student forms a view before group discussion begins, so no one is simply waiting to follow whoever speaks first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recent evidence from diverse international student cohorts confirms its effectiveness in improving engagement and collaborative skills, particularly where students come from teacher-centred learning backgrounds (Shen et al., 2024)<\/a>. For me, however, its value became most visible in what happened in the classroom. By the third or fourth TBL cycle, students who had barely spoken in the first weeks of semester began to contribute, question, and respectfully disagree. That shift rarely happens in whole-class discussion, at least not this early. The classroom also became less dependent on me to generate conversation, as students increasingly talked to, questioned and learned from one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second strategy is peer review, which similarly encourages students to take an active role in their own and each other\u2019s learning. Dimitrios et al. (2024)<\/a> found that peer assessment, when well-structured, supported students\u2019 understanding of course requirements and encouraged evaluative judgment, though they note that students require scaffolding to formulate constructive feedback effectively.For students accustomed to receiving feedback only from their teacher, evaluating a peer\u2019s work can feel unfamiliar and sometimes even uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have found that the best way to introduce peer review is to start small. In my classes, we usually look at a sample together first. We talk about what works, what could be improved, and what kind of feedback would actually help the writer. Students then use the same criteria when reviewing each other\u2019s work. This gives them a chance to practise before being asked to comment on a classmate\u2019s writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, one of the most useful parts of peer review is that students learn just as much from giving feedback as they do from receiving it. When they start noticing what works, what is missing, or what could be clearer in someone else\u2019s writing, they often start seeing the same things in their own. Over time, peer review shifts students\u2019 understanding of who is allowed to make academic judgments and gradually repositions them as active, confident contributors to their learning community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are considering either strategy, start SMALL<\/strong>. You do not need to redesign your whole class. One TBL activity or one structured peer review activity is enough to begin. Try it, see how your students respond, and adapt it to your own teaching context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you would like to explore these approaches further, the Team-Based Learning Collaborative\u2019s Getting Started guide<\/a> offers practical guidance on introducing TBL, forming teams and designing activities. For peer review, Teaching@Sydney\u2019s guidance on assessment and feedback<\/a> provides useful ideas for involving students in making academic judgments offers hands-on strategies for building peer feedback and reflection into collaborative learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal is not to eliminate silence entirely, but to ensure that when students are quiet, it is because they are thinking, not because they are afraid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I first started teaching international students back in 2023, my classrooms were noticeably and unexpectedly quiet. 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Team-based learning: turning silence into dialogue<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Peer review: shifting who holds authority<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Getting started in your own teaching<\/h2>\n\n\n\n