Using Course Reflections

Many of the topics addressed in this course are nuanced and carry emotional weight. Many of them relate to people's personal experiences and deeply held beliefs about themselves and the world around them. This content is easier to process if there is room for private reflection.

Course Reflections

To encourage engagement with these reflection points, we have created a separate document containing all the course's reflection prompts with links to their location within the course for context. You can encourage your TAs to write (electronically or on paper) their responses to the reflection prompts as they go. We are providing this document in both PDF format and as a Google Doc that can be copied and edited.

Using Reflections to Increase Participation

Depending on how you plan to use this course, you could use the submission of written reflections as a way to hold TAs accountable for actually thinking about the course material. What they write might also give you some insight into their perspectives and the impact the course is having.

However, it is worth noting that some of these reflections are very personal and most people are more likely to be honest and dig deeper if they know that no one else will be reading what they write.

Another way you can use the reflections to encourage engagement is to have TAs prepare for a discussion by completing the reflections from a certain topic, making it clear that they will not be required to share what they wrote but should be prepared to discuss some aspect of their reflection. Then you could use those reflection prompts as starting points for discussion, knowing that anyone who did the required preparation should have had an opportunity to reflect and organize their thoughts on the topic.

For more group discussion strategies, see the Tips for Facilitating Discussions page.