Surfacing Assumptions, Building Community: An Early Semester Strategy for Setting Discussion Norms
Register for this session by Thursday, August 20
Students arrive in our classrooms carrying a range of assumptions about the subject matter—some acknowledged, and many not. If left unexamined, these assumptions can quietly shape how students engage with course content and with one another. This session presents a concrete, replicable first-day strategy for surfacing those assumptions and using them as the foundation for building a genuine community of inquiry. Participants will explore a structured activity in which students respond to a discipline-relevant question, encounter the full range of their peers’ responses, and then work collaboratively to uncover the assumptions underlying different positions. Rather than treating difference as a problem to be resolved, this approach frames it as a resource—one that teaches students early and experientially that subject matter is complex, that reasonable people hold different views, and that thoughtful engagement requires first listening to understand. The session concludes with a discussion of how this first-day experience naturally leads into the co-creation of discussion norms.
Eligible Participants: Tenure-Track Faculty, Non-Tenure Track Faculty and Course Instructors, Graduate Students, and Staff (AP and Civil Service)
