In this discussion group held October 15th, and led by Harry Brighouse, FIGs faculty focused on small group discussion as a pedagogical strategy: what works/what doesn’t, how to facilitate it, and what approaches are appropriate for FIGs students.
Compiled below are many of the ideas/techniques shared in the discussion
- Force students to think about tradeoffs - choices force students to think about what they value.
- Developmentally, students often see in black and white, and are looking for the “right” answer.
- Open discussions of small groups up at the end to help facilitate even further discussion.
- Put students in uncomfortable situations! This will help the learning process.
Give students a creative activity without a product. Failure produces knowledge! - Discussion can take more forms than dialogue or even talking. Grappling with issues can be physically embodied in movement, acting, or other non-traditional classroom discourse modalities.
- Students often come up with their own good discussion prompts.
- Students learn from, and enjoy discussing and posing potential exam questions.
- Drop the lecture style of teaching. Lecture teaching creates students waiting for the answers. Make students create their own hypothesis, create their own questions, and give their own examples.
- Participating faculty noted that their “lecture” time has been reduced to less than 1/3 of the class.
Other topics that were touched upon:
- Talked at end of session about if it's okay for faculty to use their own work, papers, or texts in the class assignments.
- Recognizing that it takes considerable energy to restrain oneself and not jump in while students are “hashing it out.”
- Trying not to jump into the discussion too quickly to clear it all up
- Considering and navigating teacher identity in the post-lecture classroom.
- Attempting to step back into a moderator/facilitator role…taking on the role of critic in a discussion, not the source of information or content.
The discussion was robust and informative, and the exchange of ideas was beneficial to all.
The next planned discussion is November 5th at 1:00 pm location TBA.