Over the last year or so, I have had numerous conversations with faculty using the IF method in the classroom and lamenting that, too often, it is difficult to get their students to go deeper and think harder when engaging more abstract topics. On the concrete stuff, students can talk for hours. But, they have a much harder time with the more abstract explorations. What tricks, techniques, and approaches have you tried or would you try, given another opportunity, by way of trying to get students to engage the grey zone– particularly in discussions of values, morals, aesthetics, etc.?
Engaging Abstract Topics
November 15, 2010
By:
Sue Goodney LeaRecent Posts
Tags
art
attitude
challenges
citizen discussion reports
citizen discussions
civic engagement
Classroom Discussions
Collaborative Discussion Project
communication skills
conceptual possibilities
consensus
contrasting possibilities
conversations
creativity
deliberation
democracy
developing questions
discussion
discussion process
Discussion Reports
educational implications
exploration
facilitation
first year seminar
generating possibilities
generosity
governance
higher education
IF discussion process
interactivity
learning by doing
Natalie Hopkinson
National Building Museum
participation
pedagogy
personal development
Project Discussions
public discussion
Public Discussions
reasoning skills
recruiting
small groups
student-centered discussion
student evaluation
student success