Harvesting what we already know about collaborative experiences and empowering groups to create collaborative guidelines Dear collaborative discussion friends, Welcome to the Collaborative Discussion Project Newsletter. In our first newsletter, we highlighted two...
Pre-program surveys Dear collaborative discussion friends, We are kicking off the new year with our first Collaborative Discussion Newsletter, highlighting a new Collaborative Discussion Toolkit activity each week. We have heard your feedback! Our open source...
In recent years IF has migrated many of its operations to online platforms. As a non profit, efforts began as cost saving measures. Now, video-conference platforms, merged calendars, communication via social media platforms is just as efficient as effective....
Ia Natsvlishvili was a participant in the 50-Hour Training Course in the IF Discussion Process that IF Fellows Mark Notturno and Ieva Notturno conducted in Washington DC last Spring for Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP) scholars. After successfully...
When many faculty hear the term “student-centered discussion,” they imagine students leading a “discussion” that is really just a bull session. In fact, this is typically the sort of discussion that happens when faculty allocate small-group discussion time in...
There’s a lot of talk these days—as there’s always been—about reforming higher education. One of the more popular ideas getting a lot of play is that doing away with the disciplines will fix what’s wrong with the system. The disciplines are maligned for being...
So much of what goes on under the name of political discussion is aimed at persuading people to accept certain public policies. And so much of what goes on in facilitated public policy discussions is aimed at bringing a group to consensus. This is not the aim of...
The Perspectives articles exploring IF in the classroom have, thus far, largely articulated the benefits of our student-centered approach on student learning, interaction, retention, and skill development (leadership, communication, etc.). It is important that we...
What is the future of a college education in the USA? The recent economic downturn seems to have sharpened the already well-known trend toward seeing a college education largely in terms of enhancing one's economic security. And as our uncertain economic times...
Now that it's been well over a month since my last post, it's hard to know how to sum up all the things that have happened. I'll start at the conclusion: Thursday was the last day of my IF course. All 15 of our first-year seminars are invited to participate in...