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Active participation and student journal in Confucian heritage culture mathematics classrooms

This article discusses an effort to encourage student-instructor interactive engagement through active learning activities during class time. We not only encouraged our students to speak out when an opportunity arises but also required them to record their active participation in a student journal throughout the semester. In principle, any activities which constitute active learning can and should be recorded in a student journal. These include, but are not limited to, reading definition, theorem, problem, etc.; responding to questions and inquiries; asking questions; and pointing out some mistakes during class time. Despite an incentive for this participation, our experience teaching different mathematics courses in several consecutive semesters indicates that many students resist speaking out publicly, submitting empty journals at the end of the semester instead. Students' feedback on teaching evaluation at the end of the semester reveals that many students dislike and are against the idea of active participation and recording it in the journal. This paper discusses the reason behind this resistance and provides some potential remedies to alleviate the situation.