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Internationally Speaking
Amani came to study in the United States from a middle-eastern country. She was on a government scholarship and had to meet specific academic benchmarks to keep it. Her freshman year consisted primarily of general education courses plus freshman English. Amani did...
What IF …? Public Safety, Race, & Society–the First of Three Conversations
Uprising in the Streets--What's Rising Up? Since the police killing of George Floyd, there have been uprisings and protests in the streets across the US and around the world. What do these events say to you? What do they reveal about law enforcement, public safety,...
Practice, Practice, Practice
Improving discussion skills through guided practice and repetition Jeanne Foster was concerned that her students weren’t making progress on their in-class discussions. She would evaluate each discussion facilitator each class period, but would often see others in...
Coaching Discussion Facilitation
Coaching: providing a path to find answers, not the answers Mohammad was scared of his upcoming discussion facilitation in class. Part of his fears centered around his language skills. His speaking skills were strong. But he worried about whether he could...
What IF …? Public Safety, Race, & Society–A Community Conversation Series
Join Us for an Exploratory Conversation Series The recent police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, alongside other instances of police violence against Black Americans, has galvanized our national conscience and spurred uprisings and protests across the...
Rethinking the Social Compact in Pandemic Times
Among the chronic social conditions that have been brought into sharp relief during the COVID-19 pandemic is that of income inequality. The intersections of poverty, food insecurity, access to health care, and a range of other types of human needs have a bright...
Creating Discussion Infrastructures in the Classroom
George Wagner invited his colleague Ashley Sackler to visit one of his general education courses to see how he used classroom discussions. Sackler was amazed at what she found. When the discussions began, students broke up into small groups around the room....
Time to Think
What can in-person discussions learn from online discussions? Paul was an enigma. He was slow to participate in class discussions. But when he did, his contributions were often quite insightful. It wasn’t that he was shy. In fact, he and his friends played in a New...
The “Climate” of Climate Discussion
It would probably surprise few that the tone of climate change discussions has changed considerably over the years. I have been involved as facilitator, participant, or observer in over fifty such discussions over the last fifteen years. Early on I (and many...
Clues, Cues, and Queues…in Online Discussions
How can we manage the flow, when conversations shift to videoconferencing? "One of the skills you are going to need to develop is to look for discussion participation clues,” Professor Sonja Berenson told her class. “These skills will tell you when someone wants to...
