Strategies Phase 2

What strategies can be focused on during this phase?

Structuring interaction with other perspectives: Simply asking students to take another point of view will not yield the same learning outcome as having students actively experience it. Structuring interaction by using learning activities that will help students take different perspectives in order to complete an assignment can be helpful. For courses where it is not necessarily obvious for students to bring in personal perspective on the course material, this strategy can help students acquire the skills to interact in a constructive way. Furthermore, practicing interaction with other perspectives on content level instead of personal experience or identity level can feel safer to students. Examples of learning activities to do this can be found below.

Creating “in between” spaces for interaction: To have meaningful interactions in the classroom, it is necessary to stimulate students to not just tolerate each other—which can lead to indifference and ultimately exclusion of students who have a different and unique outlook on things—but to create spaces where true interaction can take place. In order to achieve this, students must practice to actively make space for other perspectives, especially when their own is a majority one (Ghorashi, 2009).

Dispelling the illusion of explanatory depth: We tend to overestimate our understanding of complicated concepts. Our assumptions or judgements about the world around us are therefore less well-informed then we think. Only when we are confronted with the task to explain these concepts, or by receiving more information about them, do we realise the deficiencies in our knowledge. Consequently, the illusion of our ability to explain these concepts is dispelled (Rozenblit and Keil, 2002). In the classroom, this mechanism can be used to stimulate students to come to new insights by opening up to other perspectives. An example could be asking students to take a stand about a theory, approach or statement and asking them to explain their position, followed by a learning activity that asks them to research the opposing side. Doing this will help critical evaluation of their first stance, leading to a more open mind to other viewpoints in other contexts.

Integrative conflict management: Working on group assignments with students that come from other disciplines or with different outlooks on life can lead to feelings of unease and tension within the group, and sometimes even to conflict. The integrative approach within conflict management entails an active search for information about the about facts and interests during a conflict (Rognes and Schnei, 2007). Taking a step back from the conflict to map out questions such as; why are we not in agreement? What is it we want or need out of this? Which assumptions is this based on? What would benefit all of us? What more information do we need to decide this? can help resolve it. This approach can also be structured into a preventive learning activity (for example a brainstorm before the actual assignment).

Reinforcing ground rules for interaction and discussion/monitoring learning climate: In phase 2, these strategies from phase 1 may need to be reinforced. Referring back to agreements made about ground rules for interaction is sometimes enough to steer a discussion in a more inclusive direction. Similarly, by checking in on how students perceive the learning climate during this phase, adjustments can be made to make it feel safer. A simple example would be the use of an online tool to collect anonymous feedback, asking students whether they feel the ground rules that were set in an earlier stage are being followed.