Common Objections to Using Discussions (Brookfield and Preskill)
Note: This WordPress site allows for threaded discussions in the margin of a text. Please make at least two comments as a response to some of these objections, preferably where you disagree (but not necessarily). When you consider implementing discussions into your teaching, you may have or encounter some predictable reservations about how realistic this is. […]
A Word on Reading Poetry
Most of you have been taught, probably by your high school English teacher(s), that you cannot understand poetry. I’m not saying that they stood up there in front of the class and lectured to you on how stupid you are or anything like that. The process is much more subtle and sinister. I have a […]
Teaching and Learning as Textual Acts: Blogs, Dialogism, and the Practice of Writing
One of my favorite quotations comes from Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” (1917), and it gets at the heart of not only what drives and defines me as a teacher, but also what drives and defines what I think the practice of teaching and learning in higher education should be. I do […]
Introduction to the Flipped Classroom
Here is an excerpt from a recent post written by Jeffrey R. Young on The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Wired Campus blog. The post was published on 28. August, 2015 and is entitled, “Readers’ Definitions of Ed-Tech Buzzwords: Confusion and Skepticism Continue.” Most administrators gave straightforward definitions of terms like “flipped classroom,” which one defined as “The readings and lectures are […]
Recent Comments in this Document
September 29, 2022 at 8:41 am
I found this linking of discussion with democracy to be fascinating and a perspective that I hadn’t considered.
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September 29, 2022 at 8:39 am
I think that discussion can be integrated into all kinds of teaching approaches! There is nothing to say you have to pick one or another. I think it’s also critical to persevere with discussion. Sometimes students are simply not used to it, but using something like the think-pair-share technique can provide a gentle introduction.
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September 28, 2022 at 5:32 pm
It’s a strong statement here between soft and hard sciences, and it’s walking on a tight rope to find the right equilibrium. A discussion about too simple or settled facts, and advanced research knowledge in natural science are not the same things. As teacher/researcher, I think it’s our responsibility to clearly establish the differences for not falling into unproductive discussions, and thus deriving away from the teaching objectives.
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September 28, 2022 at 4:34 pm
I agree with the opinion that lecturing or using other teaching approaches are equally important as discussion in learning. As Marc mentioned, finding a good balance between all teaching methods without overdoing it unnecessarily is sometime hard to reach.
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September 28, 2022 at 10:23 am
It’s important to distinguish “settled facts” from open questions here.
I think it’s a must to get across what the scientific consensus model is *now* very clearly, since so much else downstream depends on it. But in order to get there, it’s very productive to discuss how new results were established in discussion and debate *at the time*.
And of course, an explanation of _why_ something has become a settled fact, and all the different supporting evidence for it
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September 28, 2022 at 10:15 am
This seems a weak counterargument. Like the text suggests, bunch up sessions, or spread out the discussion over time. Setup in one session, use the next one just for discussion, and do the wrapup at the beginning of session 3.
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September 28, 2022 at 10:13 am
This is a point I also struggle with. I’ve tried mentimeter free-form text bubbles in smaller settings they work really well, and I can pick out some answers, and discuss them in more detail. But when there’s hundreds of them flying past the screen, I’m stuck
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September 28, 2022 at 10:10 am
They can work I think, as long as you have a tool such as menti to consolidate the groups’ answers: have them discuss with each other solving the menti questions rather than each on their own.
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September 28, 2022 at 10:06 am
For me the value of well-run group discussions for student engagement and understanding outweighs the need for (to say it extremely) box-ticking my way through a syllabus. Course descriptions always grow over time more easily than they shrink, and if I found myself in such a situation, I’d push for a review of the syllabus. I’d rather have students understand 3 topics well than 5 in a rush. The skills they pick up learning the 3 will help them get to the “missing” two with much less effort later.
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September 28, 2022 at 9:53 am
Natural scientists discuss their work all the time. No controversy here.
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