Some of us have been there. You have a room full of 30+ students, and you wonder how it is possible that so many kids or teenagers could actually be that quiet. Many avert their eyes, thinking that if ...

The image used in this post is of a small group of students sitting in a room together, (seemingly) energetically talking about the issues at hand. This is an example of synchronous discussion—the ...

So the day of the text-based discussion has arrived and all of the students have had time to think about their ideas, write them down and pair-share in preparation for a vibrant and meaningful student ...

Why Are Class Discussions Challenging? There are a variety of reasons that class discussions are challenging. It’s not necessarily just students being “lazy”. There could be a lot of real issues and ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Natalie Wexler is an education writer focusing on literacy. Nov 02, 2020, 01:28pm EST Nov 02, 2020, 01:28pm EST This article is ...

A room full of engaged students eagerly read on their phones. The room is silent, which is weird when one considers we are having an in-depth conversation about an academic article or a broader topic ...

Academic instructors, hired for their content expertise, are rarely trained in skills like classroom facilitation or community-building. But successful collaborative learning requires a degree of ...

For many students, participating in online class discussions feels like a chore—a box to check off for participation points rather than a lively dialogue. “I go in there and do it because I have to,” ...

Whenever you lead a class discussion, you naturally want to see your students eagerly participating. It shows they’re engaged, and that’s surely a prerequisite for learning. But too often academics ...

At some point in their career, every teacher will find themselves having a difficult discussion with their students. My first took place not long after I began teaching. It involved one of my students ...

As an undergraduate, I took a seminar dedicated entirely to Ulysses by James Joyce. Joyce’s modernist novel is mystifying, so question marks hung on the ends of students’ contributions. As we ...

Thanks to work done by the Faculty Senate, in consultation with deans and academic affairs and ITS staff, I wanted to share information and new policies with respect to recording class sessions.