by Shelby Clark and Danny Mucinskas
From 2017-2022, our team was involved in an investigation of international mission-driven schools, centered on the United World Colleges movement. A full report of findings was released in June 2022 and is available here.
A synthesis of major findings is presented in the slideshow below, which may be helpful for readers to understand the major takeaways that have come out of this original research.
by Shelby Clark
Each month, we spend some time gathering and sharing some of the latest newsletters, podcasts, and other resources that keep us informed. Learn more below about new ways to keep up to date with the latest topics and issues related to social good, character, and education.
Newsletters you might want to sign up for…
The TED-Ed Daily (here)
TED-Ed aims to help educators “discover ideas that spark the curiosity of learners,” “create customized lessons for [their] students,” and “inspire [their] students to share their big ideas.” “The weekly newsletter delivers excellent TED-Ed content to your inbox every Saturday. It’s your one-stop shop for everything TED-Ed from the previous week including TED-Ed Animations, TED Talks Lessons, TED-Ed Best of Web and blog posts. Don’t have time to check ed.ted.com every day? This newsletter is a perfect solution.”
Jobs for the Future (here)
“Jobs for the Future (JFF) drives transformation of the American workforce and education systems to achieve equitable economic advancement for all.” JFF focuses on three areas: equity, employer needs, and the future of work. They “focus on today’s most urgent issues while preparing for the future.” Sign up for one or all of their many issues touching on topics such as policy, research, corporate leadership, and more.
Podcasts that might interest you…
The Education Gadfly Show (here)
“For more than 15 years, the Fordham Institute has been hosting a weekly podcast, The Education Gadfly Show. Each week, you’ll get lively, entertaining discussions of recent education news, usually featuring Fordham’s Mike Petrilli and David Griffith. Then the wise Amber Northern will recap a recent research study.”
How to Be a Better Human (here)
“Join How to Be a Better Human as we take a look within and beyond ourselves.How to Be a Better Human isn’t your average self improvement podcast. Each week join comedian Chris Duffy in conversation with guests and past speakers as they uncover sharp insights and give clear takeaways on how YOU can be a better human. From your work to your home and your head to your heart, How to Be a Better Human looks in unexpected places for new ways to improve and show up for one another. Inspired by the popular series of the same name on TED’s Ideas blog, How to Be a Better Human will help you become a better person from the comfort of your own headphones.”
People Taking Action Podcast (here)
“People Taking Action is a podcast intended to publish the inspiring actions of people fighting for a sustainable future. By interviewing leaders who are pioneering their own environmentally sustainable projects, whether it be in advocacy, climate change mitigation or adaptation, or technical and community projects, we want to bring their voices to the forefront. Drawing on a global network of inspiring professionals, this podcast brings a positive, upbeat and informal perspective to the sustainability podcast scene.”
Webinars to check out …
CASEL’s Demystifying Systemic Social and Emotional Learning: 10-Part Series (here)
“Educators around the globe are seeing an increase in demand and attention to social and emotional learning (SEL) to create successful and equitable outcomes for young people. As a result, education leaders are grappling with what high-quality, systemic social and emotional learning looks like in schools, what the current research says, and what policies will best support students. This monthly series of thought leadership webinars addresses ten key aspects of high-quality systemic SEL. Join CASEL and collaborators for insights on prioritizing academic, social, and emotional learning for all students across all school contexts.”
Next Level Lab’s Distinguished Speakers Series (here)
“The Next Level Lab Distinguished Speaker Series launched in Spring 2022 to provide an opportunity for the broader community to learn from scholars who are engaged in work related to the learning sciences, innovative learning design and technology, and workforce development. Summaries of prior presentations are posted at the links [on this website], along with video recordings of the sessions where available. We hope you can join us when the series resumes in Fall 2022!”
by Shelby Clark
Leading interesting discussions in the classroom can often seem like a fraught process. To begin, you might think you’ve discovered an engaging and interesting prompt only to find out that students find the subject terribly boring. Then, you change topics, only to find out that the material being discussed is now controversial, or even banned. Next, you want to allow students to bring their own topics to the discussion and end up with students in conflict with one another over issues of identity. Yet, as the world grows more politically polarized yet more globally connected, the need for civil discourse skills becomes only more evident.
Here at The Good Project, we believe in the importance of discussing deliberately difficult dilemmas in order to develop the qualities needed to do good work– ethics, engagement, and excellence. When thinking about how to resolve a difficult dilemma, we often apply a framework referred to as the “5Ds,” which includes the following steps: 1) recognizing the dilemma in your life (define); 2) consulting with others regarding possible actions to take (discussing and debating); 3) personally reflecting on these options and whether or not to take action (deliberation); 4) making and potentially carrying out your decision (deciding); and, 5) finally, reflecting on the consequences of one’s decision and thinking about how one might handle similar decisions in the future (debriefing).
We realize that this process of engaging in such deliberate discussions requires that educators and students are ready to take on a high level of intellectual risk-taking in order to engage in what can end up being controversial or vulnerable conversations. Below, we review key processes and resources regarding civil discourse in the classroom in hopes of helping educators facilitate dilemma discussions more easily.
Helping students feel that they are in a safe space where they can show their authentic selves to both their peers and their teachers is a step that should begin before starting dilemma discussions. Belonging for students can mean feeling a sense of connectedness, social support, or feeling valued and respected. Importantly, a large literature explores how students who have been marginalized are more likely to feel a sense of alienation in particular school contexts (for example, Black students in predominantly white college institutions).
Teachers should be attuned to how students in their classrooms may or may not feel connected to school. Some tools include:
Making Caring Common’s Relationship Mapping Strategy
Greater Good Science Center’s Practices for Building Positive Teacher-Student Relationships
Greater Good Science Center’s Practices for Building Positive Peer Relationships
You might consider having your students engage in identity mapping so that they can begin to learn more about how their peers understand themselves; such understanding can begin to help them jump over the “empathy wall.”
Once you feel your students are comfortable enough to begin discussions in the classroom, it is important to set norms for civil discourse.
Resources abound regarding how to set norms for civil discussion. Here are just a few for inspiration:
Facing History’s Creating a Classroom Contract
The Choices Program’s Guidelines for Participating in Classroom DIscussions
United States Court’s Setting Ground Rules: Civil Discourse and Difficult Decisions
Critical Multicultural Pavilion’s Guide for Setting Ground Rules
Bill of Rights Institute’s Setting Classroom Expectations for Trust, Tolerance, and Civil Discourse
One exercise that we have used in professional development and educational activities is to provide participants with a list of common norms for discussion. See the slide below: participants are asked to read over the norms and to take time in groups or as a whole to reflect. For example, are there norms that need to be adapted, dropped, or added?
Before diving in further, consider having your students complete a reflective self assessment such as the United States Courts’ Civility Self-Reflection Exercise. Where do they currently stand on these questions? Where might they stand at the end of a unit focused on debate or dilemma discussions? At the end of a semester or year?
In order for students to take the intellectual risk of participating in a classroom discussion, students must know how to participate in such discussions. Depending on the issue at hand, discussions can call on a variety of students’ strengths and skills including critical thinking, evidentiary reasoning, argumentation, deliberation, reflection, metacognition, questioning, and more. Yet, students may have had little practice in using such strengths in the classroom.
Provide Models
One way to help students learn the skills needed to engage in discussion is to provide them with specific models of good discussion and to have them reflect on those models. What are they seeing? What do students do in the discussion? What does the teacher do? What types of questions are asked? What statements are made? What is the body language of those in the discussion, and where is everyone standing or sitting? What is the tone of voice? Who gets to speak and when?
Some models of discussion you might provide include:
1. Harkness. Harkness is a pedagogy wherein students and teachers engage in an egalitarian manner in meaningful discussions around a table (versus a teacher at the front of a more typical classroom of desks). These discussions work in support of deep, critical thinking, reflection, and feelings of self-efficacy about learning. Phillips Exeter Academy, where Harkness was created, has numerous video examples of Harkness in action in the classroom that can be shown to students as a model. In addition, Harkness teaching tools, such as mapping comments at the Harkness table, can help students reflect on what they’re seeing.
2. Socratic Discussions. A Socratic discussion is “a structured discussion in which students examine issues and respond to open-ended questions about a text. Students use dialogue rather than debate to communicate with each other.” However, in Socratic discussions, the teacher (or leader) often remains the main instigator of questioning, whereas in Harkness, students are meant to be the main initiators of questioning. There are numerous resources online to learn more about Socratic discussions (here, here, here), but you can also model these discussions with videos for your students as well. Consider having your students use some of AVID’s worksheets to help them reflect on the video model; for example, which of the AVID Socratic Seminar Questions did they observe being used in the video, if any?
3. Better Arguments Project. The Better Arguments Project “is a national civic initiative created to help bridge divides – not by papering over those divides but by helping people have Better Arguments.” They have identified three dimensions and five principles of a better argument. The three dimensions include being aware of historical context, showing empathy and emotional intelligence, and recognizing power dynamics. The five principles include: 1) Take Winning off the Table; 2) Prioritize Relationships and Listen Passionately; 3) Pay Attention to Context; 4) Embrace Vulnerability; and 5) Make Room to Transform. Students can engage with some of the Better Argument Project’s “real stories” to learn more about having a better argument. The Good Project worked with the Better Arguments Project to create a workbook focused on how better arguments can help lead to good work.
Importantly, a key element to all three of the above frameworks is the notion that discussion is not a debate–it is not about winning or losing but is instead about understanding one another’s perspectives and the truth about the subject being discussed.
Provide Prompts & Explicitly Teach Skills
In addition to explicit models of discussion, prompts that guide students to conduct dialogue and discussion with particular skill sets, or explicitly teach these necessary skills, can be helpful. These skills include how to question, how to reflect, how to challenge, how to interject, how to comment, and so on.
Some useful resources include:
Prompts: Facing History’s “Socratic Seminar Stems”
Prompts: Willett’s (2016) “Student Guide to Harkness Discussions”
Prompts: EL Education’s “Sentence Starters for Courageous Conversations”
Commenting: The New York Times’ “Approve or Reject: Can You Moderate Five New York Times Comments?”
Commenting: Phillip Exeter’s “Student Comments”
Finding Evidence: Facing History’s “Relevant or Not?”
Finding Evidence: Britannica’s ProCon.org
Finding Evidence: Project Zero’s “Facts or Fiction?”
Challenge Biases: Facing History’s “Confirmation and Other Biases”
Recognize the Limits of Our Knowledge: Character Lab’s “Intellectual Humility Playbook”
Active Listening: United States Institute of Peace’s “What is Active Listening?”
Active Listening: Facing History’s “Learn to Listen, Listen to Learn”
Awareness of Different Perspectives: Facing History’s “Cafe Conversations”
Awareness of Different Perspectives: Project Zero’s “Circle of Viewpoints”
Switching Perspectives: Britannica ProCon’s “Philosophical Chairs”
Judging Arguments: Britannica ProCon’s “Judging the Arguments in a Debate”
Defending a Position: Facing History’s “SPAR- Spontaneous Argumentation”
Disagree: Edutopia’s “Teaching Students to Disagree Productively”
Refutation: Learning for Justice’s “Civil Discourse in the Classroom: Introduction to Refutation” (page 12)
Criticality: Project Zero’s “True for Who?”
Criticality: Project Zero’s “Step In- Step Out- Step Back”
Decision Making: Character Lab’s “Decision Making Playbook”
In today’s climate of increasing political and social division and tension, educators need to be prepared to deal with “hot button” topics in their classroom. Often, these exact topics are the ones students want to discuss, as they are the most relevant to their own identity development and lived experiences.
A variety of resources exist to help educators be prepared when such issues arise:
Derek Bok Center’s “Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom”
University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning & Teaching “Guidelines for Discussing Difficult or High Stakes Topics”
University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning & Teaching “Discussion Guidelines on Various Topics”
Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching’s “Difficult Dialogues”
UConn’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning’s “Difficult Dialogues”
University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning & Teaching “Responding to Microaggressions in the Classroom/Learning Space: Some Options”
Faculty Focus’ “Responding to Microaggressions in the Classroom”
In addition, there are resources to help educators tackle specific controversial or difficult discussions:
Issues of Race/Ethnicity:
Learning for Justice’s “Let’s Talk!: Discussing Whiteness”
Learning for Justice’s “Let’s Talk!: Discussing Black Lives Matter”
Issues of Gender, Sexual Identity & Sexual Orientation
Learning for Justice’s “Get Past the Discomfort: Discuss LGBT Issues”
Learning for Justice’s “Discussing Sexual Harassment in the Classroom”
Learning for Justice’s “Let’s Talk! Discussing Gender in the Classroom”
University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning & Teaching “Guidelines for Discussion of CyberBullying and Expressions of Anti-Gay Sentiment”
Of course one of the main goals of engaging in discussion is to talk about and learn the content in question, whether it’s a poem, a recent news event, Greek philosophy, or a math equation. However, as discussed above, it is also important for students to learn the skills and strengths needed to engage in any discussion.
To accomplish this type of learning students need to be able to engage in metacognitive reflection, meaning they are able to keep track of:
What they have already known (prior knowledge)
What they don’t know (areas of improvement)
What they want to master (their goals)
What they will do to improve (action plan)
This process is encapsulated in what is termed the “metacognition cycle.”
To help students with metacognitive reflection:
Find ed-tech tools that will help them set, assess, and keep track of their goals
Have students think about their cognitively passive versus cognitively active studying or discussion behaviors
Use student portfolios or journals to prompt reflection
Have a “Stop and Think” time where you use open-ended questions to help students think about how they’re learning, rather than what they’re learning
Use Project Zero’s “I used to think _____, now I think _____” routine to help students think about how their mindsets have changed
Harkness METICs are an excellent example of a metacognitive reflection exercise. Although implemented differently by each Harkness teacher, METIC stands for “Mid-Term Effort to Improve Class,” and generally involves either formal or informal reflection exercises in which students are asked to think about what has been going well and not well at the Harkness table– often both individually and as a collective group– and what can be done to improve for the remainder of the semester. See examples here and here.
Conclusion
This is by no means an exhaustive list of resources regarding how to engage in discussion, nor do these resources touch on the breadth of the discussion literature. Nonetheless, we hope that these resources provide you with some guidance as you help your students think about and discuss ethical dilemmas, values, the meaning of “good work,” and more.
by Shelby Clark
As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third year, teachers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. We sympathize, want to help, and in our work with educators we’re doing a lot of listening. Some of the questions we all are asking include:
What does it take to be a good teacher during a pandemic?
Are teachers able to be engaged, ethical, and excellent during a time of immense pressure, while at the same time encouraging their students to be good workers?
What are the non-negotiables that teachers must focus on with their students this year? What can they let go of in recognition of how difficult this time has been?
What resources and support do teachers need to help them be good workers, and who is best suited to provide this support? What are the roles of administrators, fellow teachers, parents, community members, students, and the government in ensuring success?
These are some of the questions we would like you to consider as you watch the below videos from a set of teachers who are active on social media. These teachers speak to some of their experiences as educators during the current pandemic and share ideas with insight and humor to give us all a sense of how they are doing their work right now.
Teacher @socteacher007 discusses how The New York Times may be doing an injustice to teachers and students by writing about children “lagging” behind this year, when today’s students are working in a very different social context to pre-pandemic students.
@jack.of.all.learning discusses the “burden of labor” for teachers that comes with “identifying a need, articulating a need, and then advocating for that need to be addressed.” He urges administrators and others to take on some of this burden with classroom teachers.
@ms.m_closet, a purveyor of comedic videos for educators, role-plays a staff meeting where she desperately tries to set the boundaries she’d been told by administrators to set at another recent self-care staff meeting. She provides a cheeky take on the need for more time for teachers facing a high workload.
@drzeisner, a principal educator, describes her thoughts on teacher timetables, noting that, although teachers should work full time, their schedule should ideally include a half-time course load. The other half of teacher time can then be filled with crucial non-academic elements such as mentoring, team teaching, observations, and more.
What do you think about the ideas represented here? What do you think makes a “good teacher” at this moment in time?
Learn more here (links in titles):
In our work with educators, we hear it’s become increasingly difficult to engage students in discussions. In a recent conversation, teachers told us that it might be helpful if there were more video dilemmas available on our website to help spark these conversations. Just in time for 2022, we now have two new video dilemmas [link here] available!
For those working with The Good Project Lesson Plans [link here], these new dilemmas are drawn from Lesson 1.2, which asks students to use a “See, Think, and Wonder” routine to learn how to differentiate and understand the relationship between “good work” and just “work.”
The first dilemma, “The Meaning of Grades [link here],” explores a Professor of Engineering’s relationship with grade inflation and its impact on his students’ future prospects. The second dilemma, “When in Doubt… Make it Excellent [link here],” tells the story of a high school student who turns around his school’s journalism club’s culture of making things up.
Take some time to review the dilemmas and try engaging in the See-Think-Wonder routine on your own.
What do you see in these narratives? What do you notice? How do you see these narratives relating to the 3 Es?
What do these narratives make you think about? Do they relate at all to your own life?
What do these narratives make you wonder? Do you have unanswered questions?
The Good Project Website Video Dilemmas
