   the harkness table, harkness method, or harkness discussion is a teaching and learning method involving students seated in a large, oval shape in order to discuss ideas in an encouraging, open-minded environment with only occasional or minimal teacher intervention. the method is in use at many american boarding schools and colleges and encourages classes to be held in a discursive manner. the style is related to the socratic method. developed at phillips exeter academy, the method's name comes from the oil magnate and philanthropist edward harkness, a graduate of st. paul's school (concord, nh) who presented the school with a monetary gift in 1930. it has been adopted in numerous schools where small class-size makes it effective, though it remains impractical for larger classes. harkness 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.christophe g. courchesne, "'a suggestion of a fundamental nature': imagining a legal education of solely electives taught as discussions", rutgers law record 29, no. 21 (2005): 26. harkness learning can vary &mdash; most notably between humanities subjects such as english, history and technical subjects, like math or physics. there are general principles and goals, however, that go along with this method regardless of subject matter. 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. the harkness table is used by many prestigious institutions, such as phillips exeter academy, phillips andover academy, milton academy, deerfield academy, the hotchkiss school, st. paul's school (concord, nh), the lawrenceville school, the loomis chaffee school, the college preparatory school, middlesex school, gould academy, and university of chicago laboratory schools. == technology == *a web app that helps teachers keep track of students' discussions on their laptop, desktop, or mobile device ==references==  ==external links== *exeter table company *[http://www.harknesstable.com/about.html harknes
Phillips_Exeter_Academy Teaching