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Harkness & Bottom-Up, Discussion-Based Teaching Methods



Harkness, and other bottom-up, discussion-based educational methods, have proven to be the critical path to teaching students to learn how to learn.

A top-down, lecture-based educational has been the educational standard for the vast majority of schools in America for numerous years. When Horace Mann lobbied for free pubic education in the mid-1800s in America, what modern day educators refer to as "the factory model" was instituted. Students were trained to absorb and regurgitate information, fill out worksheets, and meet baseline competency levels in writing and math. According to Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond, author of The Right to Learn, this batch processing model of education has persisted despite its glaring obsolescence.

Bertelsmann commissioned a study comparing the effectiveness of two distinct teaching styles: standing in front of a class and lecturing or a more free-form manner that encourages direct student participation. And, surprisingly, there was no difference in the groups' scores when they were tested on the material directly afterwards. But, when the groups were tested again one year later, the students in the traditional group could remember almost nothing and the latter group was expanding their detailed knowledge of the topic to other subject areas. This Bertelsmann study proves in no uncertain terms that a stand-and-deliver educational approach is both outdated and less effective than the bottom-up, discussion-based educational approach used within the Harkness method.

All the studies, case studies, and hands-on experiences of people associated with Harkness and a discussion-based educational approach have been unilaterally consistent. All evidence has shown that a Harkness discussion-based educational model is simple, effective, engaging, and, above all, "simply good teaching".

Harkness (TM) and the Harkness Table (TM) originated at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1931
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Question:
If a Harkness, discussion-based educational model is more effective on numerous levels than a stand-and-deliver educational model, why doesn't everyone use it?

Answer:
First, it bears mentioning that innumerable schools are adapting this educational model. While the premier secondary schools in America (e.g. Exeter, Andover, etc.) have basically been using this educational model since their inception, innumerable private, and even some public schools, have followed suit. And, more schools are following suit every year.

With that said, the question still stands. If Harkness is a better educational model, why doesn't everyone use it? There are four primary answers:

1- Awareness - Not all schools are even aware of Harkness. Unfortunately, while educational methods become outdated and ineffective, so do educational administrations. In other words, there are innumerable educational administrators whose educational methodologies haven't evolved along with the current, smart thinking within the educational industry.

2- Apathy - Some schools are aware of a discussion-based educational model like Harkness, but... Change isn't easy. We all know we need to exercise more, eat healthier foods, etc. But, until, G-d forbid, you have a heart attack, you can't fit into your clothing, or some other life-changing moment, we continue to persist in our less than healthy habits. In other words, educational administrators don't change their stand-and-deliver educational model to a more effective discussion-based methodology because... They don't have to.

3- Knowledge and Capabilities - Some schools are aware of Harkness, are inspired to adopt this discussion-based educational model, but do not have the knowledge and capabilities to implement this system. Many administrators are extremely capable at creating curricula, maintaining a daily class schedule, etc. Besides being effective administrators, many of these educational administrators are also extremely capable at teaching students. But, few administrators are equally effective at teaching teachers. i.e. In order to implement Harkness into a school, someone needs to teach the teachers how to educate the students using this methodology and few administrators are capable of accomplishing this. With relation to this third point, this is one of the resources that Derech Chochma provides Yeshivas and Jewish Schools: teacher training.

4- Teacher-Student Ratio - Many schools have a teacher-student ratio that is 30 or 40:1. A Harkness classroom needs to have a teacher-student ratio of approximately 18:1 or less.

5- Other Issues - Numerous administrators and teachers balk at Harkness due to political, ego, and other issues. Administrators and teachers are human and fallible.

Harkness (TM) and the Harkness Table (TM) originated at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1931
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Question:
One of my child's best teachers is very conversational in class. Is he/she using Harkness?

Answer:
Some teachers are more conversational while others are less so. But, in both cases, this does not make their teaching method discussion-based nor does it qualify as instituting the Harkness method. There are definitively shades of gray when comparing a discussion-based, bottom-up vs. a lecture-based, top-down methodology, but certain clues can help you decipher whether a teacher is using Harkness.

1- How much time does the teacher spend doing stand-and-deliver and chalk-and-talk? (e.g. standing in front of the class lecturing or lecturing while writing the relevant points on the chalk board.) With Harkness, with the exception of math and science classes, this time is minimal. And, even with math and science, the work on the board is not chalk-and-talk, but the entire class working on problems on the board together. i.e. In the math and science classes, the students are doing as much "chalk-and-talk" as the teacher.
2- What percentage of the class time is the teacher talking vs. the students talking? In a Harkness class with a teacher and 19 students (to use round numbers), it's extremely common for a teacher to speak for 5% of the class or less. In some cases, the teacher may hardly speak at all.
3- If the teacher didn't show-up for class one day, would the students be capable of conducting the class? In an orchestra, the musicians make music. In a Harkness class, the students discuss literature, history, science, etc. An orchestra benefits enormously from a conductor. And, the students in a Harkness class benefit enormously from a teacher. But, they don't, so to speak, need the teacher.
4- Do the students all sit facing forward with the teacher standing in front of the Class? In a Harkness class, the students and teacher all sit around an oval table. In the cases where the class doesn't have a Harkness table, the students and teacher all sit together with their chairs and desks positioned so everyone can see and hear each other.
5- Does your son's or daughter's teacher ask the students questions and then pull from the students the "correct answer"? With Harkness, there is rarely a "correct answer". Whether a student is reading a poem, studying an event in history, critiquing a painting, conversing in a foreign language, or discussing a social scientific theory, there is rarely a "correct answer". Much like the world itself, with Harkness, there are usually numerous answers to any given question. With Harkness, the teacher strives to have each student create their own answer to any given question. Even in math and science, there is usually more than one way to figure out an equation or derive a scientific hypothesis. And, the Harkness teacher strives to the inspire student to use the equation or hypothesis that they prefer.
6- Are tests primarily memorization-based? i.e. A students success or lack of success on a test based on their ability to memorize and regurgitate facts and/or concepts? With Harkness, there is certainly memorization involved with certain academic disciplines, but the majority of testing is based on each students ability to be accurate in their knowledge, creative in their thinking and their ability to convey their thoughts. The emphasis is on learning and learning how to learn, not on memorization.
7- Does your son's or daughter's teacher use lots of gimmicks, games, and "point systems" to maintain the students attention? In Harkness, gimmicks, games, and "point systems" are rarely necessary to maintain a student's attention and interest. With Harkness, students are drawn towards the actual subject matter within the academic discipline at hand. There are cases where students are less interested in a particular subject matter but the subject matter is brought to life by improving the content of the subject matter (e.g. explaining the impressiveness and relevance of the academic concept itself) and improving the method of conveying the material to the student (e.g. a Harkness, bottom-up, discussion-based teaching methodology).
With this said, younger students (e.g. elementary school students) can struggle to understand the impressiveness and relevance of numerous academic concepts. Consequently, gimmicks are frequently necessary. But, it's important to recognize that this is the case for younger students. When working with high school students, Derech Chochma rarely, if ever, uses gimmicks, games, and "point-systems". In general, the only time the crutch of a game or "point system" is used by Derech Chochma is when the subject matter at hand (e.g. athletics, business, statistics, etc.) is, by definition, a game or point system-based subject matter. In these cases, the point-system based learning is not a crutch or gimmick, but an experiential-based learning methodology where the subject that the student is experiencing happens to be "point-based".
8 - Does the teacher have students raise their hand in order to speak? With Harkness, students don't raise their hands. Like most discussions we encounter in our lives, the conversation is built on each individuals desire to contribute to a discussion coupled with a mutual respect between the people who are discussing an issue or topic. With Harkness, there is no need for students to raise their hands. Students, and teachers, simply contribute to discussions using patience and respect.

There are numerous other questions to ask to help you differentiate between Harkness and top-down, lecture-based models. With this said, we're hopeful that this list will help you to navigate some of the differences.

Harkness (TM) and the Harkness Table (TM) originated at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1931
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Philip Exeter, arguably the top secondary school in the nation, recently created a page dedicated to the Harkness philosophy. The page includes a good amount of interesting information as well as a Harkness video. You can find this Harkness webpage within the Philips Exeter website.

Harkness (TM) and the Harkness Table (TM) originated at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1931
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This list is merely an alphabetical list of schools who bought a Harkness table from a small table manufacturer in New England. In other words, this is a partial list of schools that teach using the harkness method.

Harkness Table

All Saints Episcopal Day School Hoboken, NJ
Atlanta International Atlanta, GA
Baldwin School Bryn Mawr, PA
Barnard College NY, NY
Belmont Hill School Belmont, MA
Boston Common Press Brookline, MA
Branson School Ross, CA
Brookfield Academy Brookfield, WI
Brunswick Academy Greenwich, CT
Bryn Mawr School Baltimore, MD
Buckingham, Browne,& Nichols Cambridge,MA
Canterbury School Fort Myers, FL
Carroll School Lincoln, MA
Cheshire Academy Cheshire, CT
Choate Rosemary Wallingford, CT
College Preparatory School Oakland, CA
Donna Klein Jewish Academy Boca Raton, FL
Dunham School Baton Rouge, LA
Dwight Englwood School Englewood, NJ
Emma Willard Troy, NY
Episcopal School of Dallas Dallas, TX
Ethical Culture Fieldstone School NY, NY
Gilman School Baltimore, MD
Glenelg Country Day Glenelg, MD
Greenvale School Old Brookville, NY
Grennwich Academy Greenwich, CT
Guilford High School Guilford, CT
Hammond School Columbia, GA
Harvard Westlake Hollywood,CA
Hathaway Brown Shaker Heights, OH
Island School Eluthra Islands
Kent Denver School Englewood, CO
Kent School Kent, CT
Kingswood Oxford W.Hartford, CT
Lawrenceville School Lawrenceville, NJ
Lower Canada College Monteal, QUE
Masters School Dobbs Ferry, NY
McDonugh School Owings Mills, MD
Montgomery School Chester Springs, PA
Moses Brown School Providence, RI
Nasu-Kaijo Academy Tochigi, Japan
Northwood Academy Lake Placid, NY
Pacific Ridge School San Diego, CA
Phillips Andover Andover, MA
Phillips Exeter Academy Exeter, NH
Princeton Review Chapel Hill, NC
Raney School Whipany, NJ
Ravenscroft School Raleigh, NC
Rocky Hill School E. Greenwich, RI
Runnemede School Plainfield, NH
Seabury Hall Makawao, HI
Shady Side Academy Pittsburg, PA
Shattuck St. Mary's Fairbault, MN
St. Edwards School Vero Beach, FL
St. Michaels College Colchester, VT
St. Paul Academy St. Paul, MN
St. Pauls School Concord, NH
St. Timothy's School Stevenson, MD
Tatnall School Wilmington, DE
Thatcher School Ojai, CA
Vail MT. School Vail, CO
Wesleyan School Norcross, GA
Westminster School of Augusta Augusta, GA
Woodberry Forest School Woodberry Forest, VA
Woodward Academy College Park, GA

Harkness (TM) and the Harkness Table (TM) originated at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1931
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Effective Teaching Methodologies

Even the most current, engaging and relevant content is inadequate if the materials aren't delivered in an effective manner. For numerous decades, a plethora of research and studies has demonstrated the most effective teaching methodologies involve active student participation. In general, teaching with a lecture-based teaching methodology can be beneficial to students. Yet, knowledge is better learned and internalized when the student is more actively engaged in the learning. Harkness is a teaching methodology that best leverages these teaching best practices. The Confucian adage "Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I'll remember. Involve me, I'll understand" has most certainly been our experience.



The National Training Laboratories conducted research to tabulate the short- and long-term effectiveness of numerous different teaching methodologies. Ironically, lecturing, the most common teaching methodology, was the most ineffective teaching methodology in terms of students, in the short- and long-term, being able to understand and internalize information. Matter of fact, reading the relevant information was a more effective teaching methodology than lecturing. The most effective teaching methodologies were practicing by doing and teaching others. Harkness makes extensive use of both teaching methodologies in the use of oval-table discussions.
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Educating with the Harkness Table
by Tyler C. Tingley - Head, Phillips Exeter Academy
Tyler Tingley is the 13th Headmaster at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH.(6/2002)

Whether it’s English or mathematics, at Exeter we call all our classes “Harkness” classes and our teachers “Harkness” teachers. Harkness identifies a table you will find at the center of every class both literally and figuratively. Harkness Tables are oval and seat a dozen students and a teacher, but they are much more than a place to sit. At the Harkness Table classmates learn by discussing their thoughts and ideas rather than just by taking notes. Teachers are participants in the discussion, guiding students in significant ways without lecturing.

Harkness Tables originated at Exeter in 1931 when philanthropist Edward Harkness challenged the Exeter faculty to create an innovative way of teaching. From the start, the purpose of the Harkness Table was to make class more “real” and therefore more involving. I think the 1930s faculty understood that Harkness Tables would make being smart more fun. They knew that discussing even your least favorite subject around the Harkness Table would make that subject interesting. But how could they know that the Harkness Table would teach students to collaborate rather than compete with each other inside and outside of class? And how could they know that the Harkness Table would make the whole community respectful of one another’s ideas and therefore a safer and more generous place to learn and live?

There is a story about the building of the first table. It seems that when Mr. Harkness sat at it, it didn’t suit him because he detected a flaw. He couldn’t see the eyes of every other person at the table. How can you have a meaningful discussion, if you can’t see the eyes of the people you’re talking to? So the table was designed with its oval shape. But another stumbling block was encountered. The oval tables were too big to fit through a doorway. The solution? Builders brought their materials to the rooms themselves and constructed the tables inside. Picturing this makes me think of a ship in a bottle – Harkness Tables actually are part of the rooms.

It is striking to me that even though we have Harkness Tables in every class, we still always refer to them as “the” Harkness Table. That’s because the unique experience of learning at the Harkness Table transcends any individual class. Let me suggest how.

When I first came to Exeter, I had a conversation with several new students. I asked them why they had come. One senior said, “I wanted to go to a school where everyone was smart and where I could have good conversations.” As principal, that resonated with me. Around the Harkness Table we learn to have intense conversations. We’re the ones who talk without raising our hands and we want to talk about everything. When somebody says, “Well, what do you think?” we all have something to say.

A lot of students choose to come here because it’s safe to be smart. When you’re sitting at the Harkness Table, whatever your background is, social trappings and distinctions drop away to make room for each person’s perspective. It’s safe to be smart because there is a notion of democracy that is characterized by the quality of thoughts, efforts and enthusiasm. The respect we feel for one another grows out of being together at the Harkness Table and extends to every aspect of our lives.

Imagine walking into an English class. Last night, you read George Orwell’s essay, “Shooting an Elephant.” Would the narrator kill an elephant again if he had it to do over? You and your classmates are trying to decide. Someone jumps in and says definitely. But you don’t think so. You point out the author’s remorse. Ideas fly around the table. Of your 12 classmates at this Harkness Table, no one is left out of the discussion. No one is hiding. Everyone speaks his or her mind, yet you each make each other question your assumptions.

You are no longer plugging formulas into problems, you’re finding the formulas for yourself. You get to think ahead of time about a question and then you have the chance to explore and confirm your ideas. Suddenly, you’re seeing the big picture and it’s thrilling. And the thrill of discovery doesn’t stop when class ends. One student told me he found his voice here. He said he used to hang back with his opinions, but now he can’t wait to speak up inside and outside of class.

There is never any busy work at the Harkness Table. Instead of a math book with an endless number of identical problems and the answers in the back of the book, your math teachers write their own text and design problems that will challenge you. In your history class, you move beyond dates – instead, you are asked to consider what “the facts” mean and why you think they are important. In your English class, your teacher wants to know which books you and your classmates have already read and which ones you want to read. Sometimes, the class syllabus may even grow out of everyone’s ideas. You go to school to challenge yourself with the unknown, not the known. That’s what makes class absorbing and keeps you immersed in it all.

Teachers are also participants in a Harkness discussion. Sometimes prospective parents think this means the teacher isn’t teaching. In fact, the teacher is demonstrating to students how to learn rather than just what to learn. That’s where our notion of “respecting the pupil” comes from. Harkness teachers excel at asking questions that excite inquiry. The more students want to know, the more they learn.

It is important to understand that the Harkness Table fosters a sense of collaboration and encouragement that continues when class is over. Students tell me they learn just as much from each other after class as they do in class, whether they’re the one giving the help or getting it. “It’s incredible how much you can learn when you’re together instead of apart,” a student said to me. Imagine school like that.
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Harkness Education
Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Like most of us, my early educational years were marked by a teacher-centered form of schooling. The teacher stood in the front of the room and presented; the rest of us sat in rows and absorbed. It wasn't until I reached high school that I experienced anything different, and then it occurred so seamlessly that I didn't even realize that I was the beneficiary of a revolutionary approach to education.

I spent my high school years at the Northfield School, a New England boarding school for girls (today it's the co-ed Northfield Mount Hermon School). My father, a graduate of the Phillips Exeter Academy, another New England boarding school (and also co-ed now, although not in his, or my, day), had scoured the countryside in search of a girls' equivalent to Exeter and had been told repeatedly, "Northfield is the place." I selected Northfield for other reasons entirely, not having any idea why he was so satisfied with the choice. And it wasn't until a few years ago, when I read about a Harkness seminar that one of my daughter's teachers had attended, that I realized why.

The education offered by Exeter takes place largely around oval tables, the originals the gifts of one Edward Harkness. Students spend their classes seated around those tables, largely in student-led discussions, guided by the occasional teacher prompt or suggestion. That was high school as I knew it -- although we didn't have the elegant Harkness tables, we did follow the model of the seating arrangement and discussion, at least in the humanities. (I understand that math and science classes have moved increasingly closer to the Harkness method over the decades.) In the article that I read, the author noted that the teacher began class by walking into the room, tossing his copy of a Shakespeare play onto the table, and asking, "Okay, what did you guys think?" The students took it from there.

When it came time for our own children to go to school, my husband and I chose a Montessori education for them that lasted from preschool through 8th grade. Still knowing nothing about the Harkness method in any official or articulated way, I naturally gravitated toward a school in which the children were responsible for their own learning, in which the adults create the climate and space and then get out of the way. My daughter and I were discussing this topic last night, and I said something about my surprise when her high school had turned out to be deeply traditional in its approach to education, with much lecturing and teacher-directed learning going on. I reminded her about having read that her freshman English teacher had gone to a Harkness seminar, which her school had seen as something of a novel approach. She acknowledged that she had been surprised, too, by how much more responsibility she and her peers had had for their own learning when they were in middle school than they later had in high school.

The topic came up last night because I had spent the day at a teacher workshop on the topic of better incorporating writing into our social studies classes. The school in which I work provides some immensely creative teaching, and the workshop was both inspiring and of practical value. But I was bothered by the emphasis on a "hook" -- the idea that we should open each class with something designed to grab the attention of our students and focus the lesson for them. Pursuant to that approach, each class is designed to become a mini-masterpiece of a drama created by the teacher, rather than an exploration initiated and pursued on the basis of student curiosity. The idea of tossing a book on a table and asking the students, "So, what did you think?" is viewed as carelessness rather than as the fostering of student discipline and rigor.

It can be fun to create those "hooks." I was working on lessons about the Scientific Revolution in Europe yesterday, and I got a kick out of looking for Ptolemaic and heliocentric maps of the universe, and finding a little cartoon depicting Galileo's run-in with the church. But in the Harkness-Northfield-Montessori line of schooling that forms the basis for my own educational philosophy, the students should have the pleasure of making those discoveries on their own.

Yes, it takes longer. Sometimes much, much longer. It's certainly easier and speedier for a teacher to present a lecture on the concepts of metaphor and simile than it is for her to ask casually, "So, 'All the world's a stage' -- what does that mean?" and leave it to the students to derive an understanding of the both the passage and the literary device. But at the end of the day, who grasps better what a metaphor is -- the student who memorized a definition and example, or the student who figured it out for herself and went on to search delightedly for more of them?
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Our Problem-Based Curriculum
The department does not use traditional text books. We decided that the most appropriate way to teach mathematics with the Harkness method was to write our own materials, consisting simply of books of problems. There are problem sets for each of the four levels of the mathematics curriculum. These problem sets are continually evolving; they are edited after each school year based on the feedback from teachers and students over the year. See the department's mission statement for more information.

A Student Testimonial
Exeter students have different views on the way they learn mathematics while at the Academy. However, they will concede that their problem solving skills are extremely developed by the time they graduate. The following is a piece excerpted from the final paper of a 1998 Transition to American Culture student:

At the beginning of the school year I felt like a stranger to the Exeter classes. I felt even worse in math class. I'm accustomed to having a lecture of math in which the teacher explains all the theories and the way of doing a problem and then our homework is to do similar problems. Here the math class was very bizarre in all aspects. In this class the teacher gives us some problems for homework. These are problems we have never done before, and we have to solve them in whatever way we can. The next day every student in the class has to explain one of the problems at the board. Then the teacher and the students have a discussion at the Harkness table if the answers to the problems are right and what other way of solving the problems are possible.

With the math class I feel that I'm learning and I inspire myself. Every time I'm doing a problem I've never done before and I don't know how to do it, I just think that I'm inventing a new theory that is going to help the world (it sounds cheesy but it works). I love this class because if you find the answer to the problem, you learned how to solve it by yourself, and you learn how to solve that type of problem by yourself and you don't have to remember anything because it is all logic for you. But I think the teaching system is more profound because I have learned how to analyze and think. I have become more patient and calm because you need it to think. A consequence of this type of teaching that is very important is that it teaches you that you are going to have difficulties and problems in life and you are going to use all [of these skills] and you are accustomed to that already. If I were to decide which math system the world should have, I would like to change all the math systems in the entire world to this one because it's more effective, and you learn math and other things essential for life.
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Harkness Teaching
Harkness tables, with their oval shape and low student-teacher ratio, are ideal for our interactive and inclusive learning experience that involves all students in dynamic discussions.

Students are expected to make positive contributions to every class, every day. By demanding daily preparation and participation, Harkness discussions foster in-depth understanding of course material and help students grow in their ability to listen, collaborate, and articulate their views while respecting those of others. The shape and small size of a Harkness table means every student has a front-row seat—there is no back row.

Harkness discussions challenge students to take responsibility for their own learning; they formulate topics, pose questions, and ignite a dialogue that brings lessons alive and leads to new insights. Teachers join in this exploration of ideas, serving as guides, mentors, and participants. This cooperation enhances academic rigor and substance. Students and faculty alike find their work more meaningful in the context of this collaborative experience.

At Harkness tables, students face each other and are seated in a way that gives equal status to all. Instead of directing their questions to the teacher, students challenge, question, and support each other’s point of view, and this cooperation enhances academic rigor and substance. Students and faculty alike find their work more meaningful in the context of this collaborative experience.
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What Does MJHS Have in Common w/East Coast Prep?
Wednesday, August 16, 2006

WHAT DOES A SMALL JEWISH HIGH SCHOOL IN MEMPHIS, TN HAVE IN COMMON WITH PRESTIGIOUS EAST COAST PREP SCHOOLS?

MEMPHIS, TN (8/16/06) – Memphis Jewish High School which opened its doors for the first time on Monday, August 14, 2006 is the only school in the Memphis, Tennessee region, either private or public, that incorporates the Harkness Method of teaching throughout its entire spectrum of classes. First initiated by exclusive Phillips-Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, the teaching style was adopted by other leading American independent schools, including Horace Mann School, The Hotchkiss School, Phillips Academy, St. Paul’s School, and The Masters School. However, no school in the Memphis region utilizes Harkness through its entire curriculum. MJHS is also the first co-educational, dual curriculum Jewish high school in Memphis.

Andy Groveman, president of Memphis Jewish High School, said the school is “for students who take pleasure in a distinctive mode of teaching and learning in which each member of the class is in some distinctive measure a teacher of all the others. We are excited that Memphis Jewish High School is the first school in this region to systemically implement the Harkness method throughout its general studies and Jewish studies curriculum.”

The name comes from the philanthropist Edward Harkness who endowed Exeter with a monetary gift in 1930 and challenged the faculty to develop an innovative teaching method that empowered students to take active ownership of their education. Tangibly, the result was an oval table around which teachers and students engaged in cooperative inquiry. But pedagogically, the Harkness classroom transformed learning. As one Exeter teacher explained, the classroom was “no longer a battleground but a proving ground,” and “in a Harkness class the students will not debate, but discuss; the teacher will not pronounce, but question.” MJHS’ Eric Berman, dean of general studies, and Joan Traffas, master teacher of history, were both trained in the Harkness method at Phillips Exeter Academy and each teacher at Memphis Jewish High School has been trained by them in the teaching methodology.

Both teachers and students at MJHS are committed to an ideal of active, participatory, student-centered learning which values teaching students not just a given course’s content, but the skills required to become their own and each other’s teachers. The Harkness Table is central to both the Memphis Jewish High School classroom and its curriculum. A place at the Harkness Table requires students to exercise a high degree of self-discipline, and to engage eagerly and energetically with both peers and instructors. Learning at Memphis Jewish High School is a cooperative enterprise in which the students and teachers work together as partners.

“Harkness classrooms have one large, oval table where the students and teachers sit together. It is designed to make the students become more actively engaged in their education and develop critical thinking skills,” said Adrian Weissman, head of school. The Harkness Method also reflects traditional Jewish learning styles according to Jewish Studies Dean Aviezer Gellman.
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Excerpted Remarks from Red and Black Parent Dinner
Liz Duffy,
Head Master
October 19, 2006

...As you all know, the faculty recently completed a curriculum redesign. During that process, we strongly reaffirmed Lawrenceville's commitment to discussion-based teaching, and in fact, beginning next academic year, we will lengthen class periods and add double periods so that teachers can take better advantage of the Harkness system.

It's fitting that as we approach the School's Bicentennial in 2010, we've reaffirmed this commitment, because the Harkness system was first introduced to Lawrenceville in 1936 as a result of a gift by Edward Harkness in honor of Lawrenceville's 125th anniversary (or our Quasquicentennial).

Edward Harkness was the son of Steven Harkness, one of the founding partners of Standard Oil. Edward, who had no children, inherited the entire family fortune when his parents and two siblings died.

Harkness was good friends with Lewis Perry, a Yale classmate of Harkness', a member of the Class of 1894 at Lawrenceville, and the principal of Exeter for 30 years. Interestingly, Perry's son, Lewis Jr., taught here for over 30 years and was a recipient of the Masters Award three years ago.

Harkness wanted to revolutionize secondary education, so he and Lewis Perry Sr. commissioned a group of faculty at Exeter to propose ways to dramatically change teaching. Harkness rejected all of their ideas, saying:

"What I have in mind is [a classroom] where [students] could sit around a table with a teacher who would talk with them and instruct them by a sort of tutorial or conference method, where [each student] would feel encouraged to speak up. This would be a real revolution in methods."

Thus, was born the Harkness table.

The first tables were rectangular, but when Harkness tried them out, he could not see the eyes of everyone at the table so he changed the design to an oval. Today's Harkness tables come in a few different sizes. They are not true ovals, but more like a rectangle with strongly rounded corners, to ensure that eye contact that Harkness felt was so important. The tables cost between $7,500 and $10,000, depending on wood choice and other options and are created by several different specialty furniture carpentry shops.

Through his Yale ties, Edward Harkness also knew one of my predecessors, Allan Heely. In 1935, during Lawrenceville's Quasquicentennial, Allan Heely approached Harkness and asked if he would consider funding Harkness tables at Lawrenceville. Harkness agreed and so the tables were first introduced here in 1936.

When I was in San Francisco last year, at a dinner for alumni and parents, an alumnus from the Class of 1938 related the dramatic, literally overnight, change that occurred when Harkness tables were introduced between his III and IV Form years. "We went from traditional classrooms with rows of desks and most teachers lecturing us up front to discussing our homework around tables." He was absolutely tickled to learn that the Harkness system remained such a powerful feature of the School.

I know first hand the power of the Harkness system, because of the bioethics course I have co-taught with Kelley Nicholson-Flynn and Joyce Baldwin. As many of you know, a key feature of that course are the simulations we stage at the end of each unit in which the students become a decision-making group, such as a hospital ethics committee reviewing a euthanasia case or a congressional subcommittee considering a stem cell research bill. When Kelley and I step away from the table, we really see the power of Harkness discussions. As the students grapple together with the material to make a collaborative decision, they push each other, discovering where they agree and disagree and perhaps most importantly what they understand and what they don't fully understand. Kelley and I have literally watched our students make a wrong assumption, carry it out to its logical extreme and then retrace their steps and correct their mistakes -- now that is learning. I often say that not only can you not hide from the teacher around a Harkness table, you can't hide from your classmates or from yourself either...
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The Harkness Table

Students who are used to a traditional classroom with rows of desks may be surprised at first by Lawrenceville’s Conference Plan, established in 1936 by the acclaimed educational philanthropist Edward Stephen Harkness.

Still the defining feature of the School’s educational life, the Conference Plan seats 12 students around an oval table along with their teacher. Eye contact—between student and teacher, and student and student—is unavoidable.

Students are therefore challenged to be well-prepared and to participate in class discussions. Classes become personal, alive, and creative. Students challenge teachers, express themselves, and risk being wrong. “There's a feeling of intellectual camaraderie,” says one student. “Sometimes we even gang up on the teacher and find ourselves going way beyond where we thought we could go with our ideas.”

Some Lawrenceville classes, such as mathematics and science, are best taught in a lab or lecture hall, where the teacher can use the blackboard or lab equipment to demonstrate examples. And faculty have introduced an array of educational technology—from CD-ROM to Powerpoint presentations to Web page construction—into the Harkness classroom. In every case, however, classes remain small and intimate. As one student puts it, “Our teachers won’t let us get away with saying ‘like’ and ‘you know.’ We have to explain exactly what we mean and support our ideas with evidence.”

Most Lawrenceville teachers live on campus and are therefore available for individual conferences with students well beyond consultation periods scheduled in each school day.
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Ten Schools that use Harkness.
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The Master's School (Dobbs Ferry, NY)
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