The Quiet Girl in a Virtual World: Learning from the Virtual Classroom to Better Support Quiet Girls in the Middle Grades

Abstract

The transition to online learning due to COVID-19 changed the nature of participation in class. Typically quiet middle grades girls who had struggled to participate in their in-person classes were provided many different avenues to contribute to class online. While prior research has examined the reasons students are quiet and the ways teachers can support them, researchers have not yet studied the ways in which teachers can learn from the virtual environment to better do so. Thus, this research seeks to fill that gap by examining the pedagogical approaches utilized in a virtual middle grades environment that strengthen a quieter girl’s confidence to speak up in class. Interviews and surveys with quieter girls and their teachers illuminated the ways in which the virtual environment allowed these students to actively participate in class. These quieter students benefitted from the use of chat and non-verbal participation tools, time in breakout rooms to discuss a topic before sharing out, and the increased space and time the online environment provided. Educators may draw from findings on the virtual environment to better support quieter students in the middle grades when returning to in-person learning.