March 10, 2021 Types and Sequencing of Discussion Questions Professor Jens Sigmund had used class discussions in is courses for years. He noticed that the way he framed questions had a major impact on the success of the discussions....
February 3, 2021 Cascaded Note-Taking Dr. Jimenez was frustrated as he read the discussion summaries from his students. One student from each discussion team served as a facilitator. The facilitators took notes on a flip...
January 27, 2021 When the Dream Team Isn’t They called themselves "the dream team." Every team member had a high GPA and a dominant personality. They were used to excelling in everything they did. But the dream team wasn’t,...
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....
