Harkness table
The Harkness table refers to a style of teaching wherein students sit at a large, circular table with their teachers, in use at many American boarding schools and colleges. It encourages classes to be held in a discoursive manner. The name for the method comes from the oil magnate and philanthropist Edward Harkness, who presented the schools with a monetary gift in 1930. He described its use as follows:
- 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.
Harkness tables are used most notably by Phillips Exeter Academy, which highlights the tables' use in its curriculum on its website, as well as other American independent schools, including The Fieldston School, where students designed and built Harkness tables for a Spring 2001 Senior project [1], The Pingry School, Memphis Jewish High School , Hathaway Brown School, Horace Mann School, The Hotchkiss School, Palmer Trinity School, Asheville School, St. Paul Academy and Summit School, American Hebrew Academy, St. Mark's School of Texas, St. Paul's School, Middlesex School, St. George's School, The Masters School, Germantown Academy, Kingswood-Oxford School, Milton Academy, Tampa Preparatory School, The John Cooper School, Regents School of Austin, Rocky Hill School of East Greenwich, RI, Phillips Academy and The Lawrenceville School, and Guilford High School.
Harkness learning can vary — most notably between liberal arts subjects such as English, and scientific subjects, like math. There are general principles and goals, however, that go along with this method. The main goal is to encourage students to come up with ideas of their own and learn good reasoning and discussion skills. Depending on his or her style, the teacher may interact very little, interjecting only to guide the discussion.