Facilitation in Teaching: Initiating Instructional Discussions—Facilitating Discussions

Contents:

One of the goals of effective teaching is to engage students in order to initiate thinking and learning processes. In this context, instructors play the role of facilitators, among other things, to promote engagement, structure contributions in terms of content, and ensure outcomes. In this workshop, elements of facilitation will be introduced and applied to participants’ own teaching. The focus will be on initiating instructional discussions and facilitating discussions during various phases of a course.
 

Contents

- Facilitation settings
- Differences and similarities between instructional conversations and discussions
- Methods and strategies for engaging and involving students
- Discussion facilitation strategies
- Methods for documenting outcomes

Participants will be able to

- reflect on their experiences with various facilitation settings
- distinguish between instructional discussions and general discussions and use them effectively in their teaching
- apply attention-grabbing techniques and other engagement methods
- effectively apply facilitation and conversation-leading strategies
 

Methods

Keynote presentations, individual and group work, peer feedback