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...
October 27, 2020 Discussion Matters As we approach the upcoming fall elections, we hear a lot about the importance of voting. To that, we’d like to say an emphatic “yes—and.” Yes, voting is essential for...
October 21, 2020 Discussion Sensitivity How can we help students to be sensitive to contrasting perspectives? Dr. Jerry Watson was disturbed when one of his students walked out of his Moral Issues class. It was during...
September 30, 2020 Diverse Discussion Groups Diversity within groups and making new discoveries? “Today we’re going to start using our class discussion groups. In a moment I’ll split you up into preassigned groups. I’ve been very careful...
September 23, 2020 Collaborative Credit? Shared credit as a way to foster genuine collaboration As students entered the classroom, there sat their professor, Walt Jenkins, playing The House of the Rising Sun through the sound system....
September 16, 2020 Collaborative Salads? (Part Two) Discovering lessons for effective collaboration “At the end of our last class, I asked you to come up with lessons about collaborative practices from the salad recipe experience,” Monica Weekly said...
September 9, 2020 Collaborative Salads? (Part One) Collaboration as more than a collection of competing efforts “Before we start with our regular small group discussions in class, I want to help you learn what can make collaborative discussions...
August 19, 2020 Peer Shadowing to Enhance Student Discussion Participation Shifting to a skill improvement approach for evaluating discussions Alston James liked to use discussions in his classes but had always been concerned about the students who rarely said anything. Some...
