Recently, I was talking to a middle school teacher who told me about her distance teaching experiences in the spring. “I knew my students really well before the confinement. I was surprised at how they participated in the online lessons. Students who could be depended upon to respond during discussions were much more subdued and quieter. Instead of giving rich answers that would help the other kids, they were giving one- and two-word answers.”

I went searching for information about this purported student inhibition in the research literature. Nada. I couldn’t find a thing.

So, I started asking other teachers about this to see what their experiences during the confinement had been like. Several told me they had noticed that problem, too. Their kids were quieter, less participatory, seemingly more reticent to join in or speak up.

The kind of inhibited participation these teachers were describing is a real problem.

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