Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education

 

Date of this Version

2000

Document Type

Article

Citation

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development (2000) 18; http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/tia.17063888.0018.016

Comments

License: CC BY-NC-ND

Abstract

In this chapter we examine how faculty resistant to experimenting with discussion methods can be encouraged to take them seriously. We begin by acknowledging and addressing publicly the objections to using discussion most frequently raised by skeptical faculty. We then turn to proposing what we believe are the most common reasons why attempts to use discussion sometimes fail: that teachers have unrealistic expectations of the method, that students are unprepared, that reward systems in the classroom are askew, and that teachers have not modeled their own participation in, and commitment to, discussion methods. For each of these reasons we suggest a number of responses and strategies.

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