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Harkness Takes Hold at BB&N

"In my class, discussions around the Harkness table equip students with new ways to understand and approach each other as they deconstruct class material," says Upper School English teacher Alda Farlow.

The centerpieces of rooms 106, 110, and 114 in newly opened Renaissance Hall are finely-crafted oval tables. Nothing too special about that, one might think at first glance.

But these tables carry with them a name, Harkness, that denotes not only a 75-year-old style of teaching embraced by a number of independent schools (probably most associated with Exeter), but also a commitment to fostering students’ critical thinking skills.

“If you value student-centered critical thinking, there is no more effective method than Harkness,” says Upper School English teacher Alda Farlow, who learned the art of Harkness teaching at her previous institution. “We have very bright children here and they can learn from each other.”

Both physically and philosophically, the Harkness table creates a classroom dynamic where every student is on equal footing with his/her classmates, and with the teacher. “When students can face each other, literally sharing a table co-equally,” says Farlow, “they can exchange ideas and reflect on them with an interpersonal understanding not always possible in other environments.”

Legend has it that the table’s originator, Edward Harkness, designed the table in an oval shape so that each participant would be able to look into the eyes of anyone around the table. History Department chair Leigh Hogan sees the logic: “It certainly makes it nearly impossible for a student to be out of view of the teacher,” he smiles.

Hogan, a newcomer to Harkness teaching, has appreciated the impact it has made in his U.S. in the Modern World I course this fall. “It really does a wonderful job of facilitating the difficult art of conversation,” he says.

“Harkness supports the kind of teaching and learning the humanities faculty want to encourage at BB&N,” says Hogan, “and these beautiful tables make a real statement on that institutional priority.”

While the tables themselves may be brand new, the underpinning philosophy has been present at BB&N far longer. The majority of humanities courses at the School are taught in circular form, and faculty members, such as recently retired Roger Stacey, have long employed the style of teaching, albeit with makeshift arrangements of rectangular tables into quasi-circles.