The Harkness Table

"Civilized discourse must be at the core of all good education and all full lives."

--Edward Harkness

Edward Harkness was an American oil magnate and philanthropist who generously supported medicine, the arts and education during his lifetime (1874-1940). His interest in education led to the development of the "Harkness Table" which Melody and I saw in action today at Annie Wright.

The Harkness Table is a kind of round (or oval) table discussion. It is not unlike a fishbowl, in that the teacher's role is very scaled back. The main difference between a Harkness Table and a Fishbowl seems to be the amount of explicit protocol involved. The students we saw today were highly trained in a specific approach to classroom conversation. The Harkness Table has clear philosophical underpinnings as well as specific skills which inform it.

I'll go into the skills in a later post, (they won't surprise you), but the philosophy is interesting and made a noticeable difference in the tenor of the conversation. What follows are the "cultural beliefs" that underlie this approach to class discussion.

1. Everyone at the table is an equal. Everyone's ideas are of value and interest.

2. Everyone can agree or diagree with everyone's ideas.

• These agreements/disagreements should be about the ideas, not the people.


• They should be made politely.


• They should be backed up by specific reference to the text to provide evidence for your opinion.
  

3. If classmates don't contribute, we need to help them do so (because we believe they want to.)

4. If classmates don't contribute, they may be behaving selfishly.

5. There should be little or no silence.

6. The discussion should show a connection of ideas in a long, connected thread, including segues to the next big question.

7. The conversation should feel "natural."

8. At the end we do not need to agree about what we believe the text is saying, but we do need to understand each other's beliefs.

To be honest, the conversation I observed today did not exactly feel "natural." However, it was serious, informed and very productive. I am intrigued the idea of having this kind of highly structured academic conversation be part of my students' skillset and my regular routine.

The Harkness Table was originated at Philips Exeter but has been adopted at many schools and is ubiquitous on-line, if you want to check it out. I will be writing more about the specific skills that are required and the way I saw it working.