What if we structure meetings as collaborative learning events? “Congratulations on being selected as the Chair of the campus Task Force”, said Julie Morton to her colleague Debra Walsh. “Thanks, but I’m not sure you won’t regret naming me Chair,” replied Walsh....

How might we encourage greater empathy in discussions? Professor Amanda Hooper liked to use discussion groups in her social science course. These usually worked well. But she was troubled by a recent development. Several of her discussion groups had students who...

How can a discussion team help its members stay on-topic? Dr. Akil Jeffries was observing his discussion groups and was dismayed by what he was hearing. All but one of the groups were totally unfocused on the discussion topics. The discussions resembled more of a...

Facilitation as a Collaborative Design Process All of you have been to my office and have seen the stained-glass work that I’ve done. Today we are going to create a stained-glass design. Each of you have a piece of colored paper and scissors. I want you to cut out...

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...

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: 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...

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....

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...

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...