January 5, 2021 Overcoming Preconceived Ideas Introducing a human dimension to engage with complexity Taylor Mathis was a trained facilitator who had earned a reputation for helping organizations think through very tough issues. His approach was to...
December 23, 2020 Facilitation Styles Hot and Cool Facilitation Styles It was a crazy day in Professor Anita Waldman’s class. One discussion group, which she called the “Brady Bunch,” was really riled up. Normally this group...
December 16, 2020 Hidden Talent and the Role of Mentors What's the real value added from higher education? Kay was an unassuming student. Her shyness held her back. She was afraid to ask questions in class and didn’t have a study...
December 9, 2020 Breaking for Tea–and Being Imaginative Professor Benny Smith was disappointed in the quality of discussions in his class. He used student small-group discussions to explore possibilities for topics being covered. The standard opening line he...
December 2, 2020 Avoiding Insanity Review what worked and what needs improvement for learning key discussion skills “There is a famous quotation attributed to Albert Einstein that goes like this: ‘The definition of insanity is doing...
November 25, 2020 Practicing What We Teach? How well do we follow the collaborative discussion practices we try to teach to others? Dr. Gloria Benson taught a course on Discussion Facilitation. Most of the grade in the class...
November 18, 2020 Using Reinforcing Questions to Expand Discussions Expanding perspectives to avoid groupthink and promote cognitive empathy Professor Stephanie Taggart was concerned about one of her discussion groups. Since her classes largely attracted female students, she tried to place...
November 11, 2020 Insight Journals and Collaborative Learning, Part Two Encouraging the practice of self-reflection Pamela Washburn was convinced to try out the use of insight journals (check out Part One on Insight Journals) in her class after seeing how effective...
November 9, 2020 Insight Journals and Collaborative Learning, Part One How could collaborative discussions and insight journals enhance student learning? Dr. Washburn dropped in to observe her colleague Gretchen Anderson’s class during one of their discussion sessions. Generally, Anderson used Thursday...