Class in the Classroom
Lee Warren, Harvard University

Class is an often invisible form of difference. Yet it is there all the time, affecting how and what students learn at every turn. It pervades the values and the purposes of colleges and universities. It contributes to determining the courses offered and the books read and discussed. Still, it is a diversity issue rarely acknowledged. Class is also very difficult to define. Ask a group to divide itself according to class, and chaos ensues. What is the difference between rural and urban poor? What about professionals who make very little money? What role does education, neighborhood, or kind of work play in the definition? For the purposes of this essay, I am going to draw the roughest of cuts between working class, middle class, and upper class recognizing the inexactitude of the division and assuming that most people have a general sense of what is meant - even though this is discomfiting. The descriptions offered here represent what people have said in workshops on the subject, in which they have discussed their own experiences as students.

How does class affect learning?
Lower class. The biggest factor affecting learning for lower class students is a lack of confidence based on real or perceived weaknesses in preparation. These students often come to college with a lower level of academic skills and sophistication than their middle and upper class peers. Not surprisingly, this affects their performance in the classroom. It also affects their perception both of their ability to do well and of their place in higher education. Although many are just as well prepared, uncertainty can lead them to be quieter and less visibly engaged in classroom encounters.
In addition, these students tend to be less able to work the system. They often have more difficulty navigating rules and regulations and finding the right people to help them. Moreover, many have trouble finding courses and majors that address their interests and needs and acknowledge their experience. Most of them need to work while attending school, which limits the amount of time available for study and can impact their program of study. So these students often feel unwelcome. They are very aware of class and of place and position. On the more positive side, working class students are keenly aware of the value of higher education, tend to be highly motivated, and know how to work hard. They are often characterized by a fierce determination and goal-orientation. They have a strong work ethic and often manage hair-raising schedules of work, family, and college, pulling off the demands of each with grit and a clear sense of purpose. They understand diversity and appreciate what they have. Confusingly, they are both loyal to their class background and often in the process of moving to the middle class. This sometimes creates difficulties for them at home.

Middle class. Middle class students are the least aware of class. They assume a place in the institution, and they come fairly well prepared for higher education, although there is a wide range in their preparation. They are more protected than the lower class students and somewhat more naive, as well as more confident. They assume they will succeed and are prepared to work hard. Many work outside of school, though not as much as lower class students; and they see working as both an advantage and a disadvantage. They know how to play the game, but not quite as broadly as their upper class colleagues. Often they need some help with academic skills but usually have the basics in place.

Upper class. Upper class students generally come to college best prepared. They are also often skilled and sophisticated in the ways of the system. Their assumption that the system is there for them enables them to work the rules to their advantage. Because they are confident in their place, they are likely to speak up in class and to assume that their ideas will be heard; and they feel free to take risks because of their social and economic safety net. They experience a wide choice of careers and significant exposure to the world of travel, education, and art. They tend to be ambitious and value success, community responsibility, hard work, and excellence.
Many upper class students, like the lower class students, are intensely aware of class and may be embarrassed about their advantages. They may often try to hide their class background, while at the same time taking their privileges for granted. They feel at a disadvantage in understanding and communicating with people of other classes and feel they have a limited perspective that can leave them insensitive to others' issues.

How can we recognize class differences in the classroom?
Class differences are not always easy to detect. However, some signals do exist. Yet even listing these signals is risky: for every example there is likely to be a counter-example. Nonetheless, it is important to have some suggestions of what to look for if we are to become more sensitive to class differences and thus more inclusive pedagogically. Language. In many parts of the country, class differences are sharply defined by accent, which can, of course, also be deceptive. In addition to accent, however, are varying vocabulary levels, which can signal levels of academic preparation and sophistication, often class-related. Academic readiness. Differing levels of preparation and academic sophistication can sometimes be attributed to class background and the quality of previous schooling. They can also affect levels of participation. Quiet students are sometimes quiet because they are not trials as they move towards discovery. The instructor intercedes only to remove insurmountable obstructions. Student involvement is normally intense with a final eureka experience at the moment of discovery, a natural reinforcer of the learning experience (Bruner, 1971).Problem-based learning (PBL) shares attributes of discovery learning but in its purest forms is more unstructured than the discovery learning approach. It uses "real world" problems as a context for students to learn critical thinking and problem solving skills and to acquire knowledge of the essential concepts of the course. In the typical PBL process, the instructor poses a problem for a small group of students to solve. Although students may have some prior knowledge related to the problem, it is not sufficient to solve the problem. After organizing what they do know, the students then identify "learning issues" that guide further research and investigation. Students share the information from individual investigations and bring it to bear on the problem at hand, working towards resolution (Norman & Schmidt, 1992).Creating "Teachable Moments"
Instructors can also engender uncertainty by exposing students to concepts or ways of thinking that conflict with their current beliefs or ways of thinking. By creating "teachable moments" in which learners experience cognitive dissonance, instructors upset students' equilibrium, stimulate their curiosity, and make them more willing to reflect upon current understanding of the concept (Hansen, 1998). For example, on the first day of class, before discussing the course syllabus, students in an introductory psychology class develop a collective concept map in which they organize the names, terms, and concepts they associate with psychology. After doing this, the instructor distributes the course syllabus and asks students to compare the class concept map with the class syllabus. Inevitably the class concept map is heavily skewed towards abnormal psychology, while the course syllabus addresses the foundations of normal psychology including sensation, perception, learning, memory, intelligence, and personality with no discussion of abnormal psychology. A well-constructed true-false test that exposes students' misconceptions about a discipline can engender a similar receptive attitude to learning. In both cases instructors expose learners' implicit understanding of a concept as well as its inadequacy as a stimulus for learning. Finally, instructors can create cognitive dissonance by developing and juxtaposing two equally compelling but conflicting assertions about a particular phenomenon or concept. The technique emulates the use of succinct paradoxical statements or questions known as "koans" as a meditation discipline for students of Zen Buddhism. The effort to "solve" a koan arouses an intense spirit of seeking and a compelling sense of doubt, intended to exhaust the analytic intellect and the egoistic will and force discovery through intuition (Watts, 1989). The early founders of quantum theory experienced similar states of doubt and tension as early atomic experiments suggested a reality quite different from Newtonian physics, grounded as it was in human sensory awareness. By exposing students to some of the contradictions raised by modern physics, for example, physics instructors can stimulate comparable states of doubt and tension that demand resolution. For example, the Newtonian model suggests that the speed of light changes and time is constant, while modern physics suggests the opposite. (Capra, 1983).Summary
Uncertainty plays an important role in the natural learning process. By consciously incorporating it into classrooms as a stimulus to learning, instructors allow students to experience the thrill and challenge of intellectual discovery and genuine learning. At the same time, they can help students appreciate the dynamic nature of knowledge construction and their vital role in the process. References

Angelo, T., & Cross, K.P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bruner, J. (1971). The act of discovery. Harvard Educational Review, 31, 21-32.
Capra, F. (1983). The Tao of physics: An exploration of the parallels between modern physics and eastern Mysticism. Boston: New Science Library. Germana, J., & Lancaster, R. (1995). Brain dynamics, psychophysiological uncertainty, and behavioral learning. Integrative Physiological & Behavioral Science, 30, 138-150.Hansen, E.J. (1998). Creating teachable moments and making them last. Innovative Higher Education, 22,7-26.Kember, D. (1997). A reconceptualisation of the research into university academics' conceptions of Teaching. Learning and Instruction, 7, 255-285.Norman, G.R,. & Schmidt, HG. (1992). The psychological basis of problem-based learning: a review of the evidence. Academic Medicine, 67, 557-565.Perry, W. (1970). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Pierce, C. (1878). How to make our ideas clear. Popular Science Monthly, January, 286-302.Watts, A. (1989). The way of Zen. New York: Vintage Books.

This publication is part of an 8-part series of essays originally published by The Professional & Organizational Development Network in Higher Education. For more information about the POD Network, please link to the POD web site at http://lamar.colostate.edu/~ckfgill or http://www.podweb.org.