Monday, October 7, 2013
The Principles and Goals of Harkness Critical Conversations Going Forward
Today we used the Harkness Method officially for the very first time. We will use it regularly going forward during this year. At the beginning of the class, we mentioned focusing on three points: 1) Posture, 2) Engagement, and 3) Looking at the Class. Given that we will be using this method and now that you've had a chance to begin to use it as a group for 20 minutes, please reflect on what principles and "rules" (i.e., posture, engagement, etc.) you think that you as an individual and the group as a whole must focus and develop to make our critical conversations even more effective? Please respond by offering THREE thoughtful ideas about what you think you AND the group must do together to improve our work in class even more. You can respond in bullet points, but if you do make sure they are complete sentences with a clear explanation of what you mean. Avoid using the things we focused on today (the three I named) unless you want to offer another level of reflection on them.
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I think that the main thing the class needs to work on is engagement. I think that today’s conversation went pretty well, but I have also never really done anything like that. I think that if/when people comment they should not be doing it just because they need to participate but because they actually believe that what they’re saying would be contributing to the discussion and if they actually believe whatever it is or feel passionately about it. I also think that we probably should try not to go off topic too much. We did not really get too off topic today, but knowing us as a class we will have discussions that will probably lead to tangents. And this last one was not really a problem today, but what about interruptions? Everyone who spoke today had something really good to say and no one really interrupted each other, so that’s good.
ReplyDelete1) I had trouble getting hot what I was trying to say, because immediately after someone would stop talking, someone else would start really fast. I don't know if there's any way to prevent that, but it was a bit of an issue for me.
ReplyDelete2) If you could please project the discussion questions or write them on the board, that would be useful in helping people remember the question after several people have talked.
3) I think it would be good to have more replies as comments instead of new proposals everytime a new person spoke.
- J��rdan Valdés #3
To ensure that our class is having critical and effective conversations we should be able to refrain from pressuring anyone to make a comment, respect each other’s opinions, and always work hard to create a safe environment for our classmates to feel free to speak in. At times it may be helpful to encourage your neighbor to say something to the class but announcing for people to speak up in front of the whole group can be a little bit of peer pressure. You don’t have to agree with every comment someone makes, but try not to bash there comments. When someone is speaking your body and facial reactions affect them. People internalize not only what you say but also what you do. So when you are dramatically shaking your head no, stomping your feet, or reacting negative like that you can cause a person to feel less comfortable to say something else in class after such a bad reaction to one of their opinions. Lastly treat your group how you would like to be treated when you’re saying something.
ReplyDelete1. I think we should refrain from calling people out to speak because it can be a little scary for people to speak and be put on the spot in front of people (not me but other people).That way everyone can speak when they are ready or feel confident enough to speak to the class.
ReplyDelete2. I also think that we should give everyone a chance to speak. For example, if someone has already spoken and someone new tries to speak at the same time as the experienced speaker then the experienced speaker should let the newbie speak.
3. In order to stay on topic maybe someone should be appointed to keep people from going in a different direction with their comments. For example if we are having a conversation on the pros and cons of democracy no one should say anything about the stereotypes of old white males (William Dollar Jr. III).
1. Our class could assign a "tracker." This person would say when we are veering off of the course of our discussion.
ReplyDelete2. I agree with Felicia when she introduces respecting one's ideas and thoughts. One needs to listen to the person's ideas and directly after provide feedback.
3. We could possibly assign an order in which people in our class would speak in. This would be very organized, but I can't help thinking it could also limit the flow.
1. I had trouble being able to speak my ideas, as someone would say something, I would try to say an answer, but someone else was already speaking. By the time there was a pause in the conversation the point had already gone by. Maybe if you have something that doesn't have to do with the point just made, you can wait a little longer to see if someone has something more specific to go with it.
ReplyDelete2. I agree with Sophie's idea of a tracker, someone to make sure that we don't get too far off topic.
3. WE careful of your body language, shaking your head and negative things like that can make people feel uncomfortable.
~Pen
1. We should refrain from tangents; if people have something off-topic to say, they can just say it after the discussion is over.
ReplyDelete2. Be respectful of other people. If you have already said a lot, just step back for a minute.
3. If you think someone has been meaning to say something for a while, just ask them what they think. This makes it a lot easier to talk.
-Sometimes I think the people that talk a lot need to just be quiet and let other people speak. Even though they obviously have lots of ideas and want to express them through speech, I think they need to give way to let others talk, even if it means a minute or two of silence before anyone speaks up.
ReplyDelete-And if some people just plain don't want to speak up, then I think it's on them, because they've been informed that they get a grade for participation, even if they aren't big on talking, I'm sure they're able to go out of their comfort zones once in a while.
-Lastly, I definitely agree with Jordan Valdeezy, and I think if you wrote the questions on the board, it would help with staying on topic within the discussion and also remembering the question and being able to come back to it when we stray off of the main topic.
I think that everyone needs to be engaged more and listening to everyone else. It should not matter how much one person talks it would be about if what they are saying is important to them and to the conversation. Some people in the class tend to talk allot and that is a very good thing to do so the class can hear what they have to say about the topic. Though they should respect the other people in the class and realize that they might have something to say too. We should respect about what the other people in the class have to say and not totally shoot down their points of view, simply state your point of view without acting as if what they said was not important.
ReplyDeleteI think every single one of these points are important, but these are the ones that stood out to me the most.
ReplyDelete-I agree with Sophie, we should appoint a tracker each meeting. Not one for EVERY meeting, but a different one every time.
-I agree with Pen and Valdeezy, we should wait for others to contribute. I noticed that I did this a number of times, interrupting a bunch of people to voice my opinion, and I know that some others did that, so we should try to get everyone's thoughts in before moving on to the next point. For example, when discussing the dangers of democracy, we should focus on one aspect for a sec. Everyone voices their stuff. Make sure that everybody has spoken, or those who intended to add stuff have contributed.
-Lastly, I agree with Pen again. We should be careful of our body language. If you start muttering some negative junk under your breath, or you start shaking your head or start spewing out sarcastic comments, you will make people not want to talk even more, and you will essentially mess them up and it will potentially decrease their grade due to lack of participation which is a result of your unsupportive or just simply poorly expressed body language. I know that sounds overly serious, and I don't intend it to sound that way, but I really don't know how to phrase it any less harsh without getting my point across.
Three ways we can better our class discussions are:
ReplyDelete1. Before speaking, people must decide what they are going to say an make sure it furthers the discussion. Comments shouldn't be too long or short because it is hard to further a discussion when someone rambles or makes to short of a comment.
2. EVERYBODY should make a comment during the discussion and everybody should .know the material well enough to make a comment. Everybody;s opinion will help a discussion.
3. We should give "speaking rights" to people who haven't spoken as much. If 2 people begin to speak at the same time, give the person who hasn't spoken as much speaking time
-My main way to improve the conversation in general is to attempt to limit how much some people talk. Today it seemed like about 5 people were totally dominating the conversation. I had things to say and others probably did too, but by the time there was an opportunity to say them, the dominant speakers had moved on to another topic. I don’t know how we could go about limiting some peoples participation. The best was would probably just be to be aware of how much one speaks.
ReplyDelete-The conversation could be improved if everyone makes sure to let other people talk if they have already said something. This went fairly well today, but there were some times when people seemed like they wanted to talk, but they were unable to because two people were having some sort of prolonged exchange of ideas.
-The conversation would be better if everyone tried to stay away from arguments. This was sometimes a problem today because the conversation just went back and forth between two or three people and it got really off topic.