Some Student Responses

Some time ago, I asked my students to reflect on their experiences with the Student-Led Discussions we've been having all year. Some students don't like them, of course, and some find them stressful, and indeed a good Complex Fishbowl Discussion is pretty intense. At one point, long before I asked the students to do this reflection exercise, one student (I can't remember who) said, "I feel like our classes are really productive." That made me pretty happy. Of course, not all discussions are truly productive. My one section that really struggles often tells me they felt we had a good discussion when in fact I know they could have done much better. As part of the "homework" I gave to my attendees at MAIS, I provided some links to student reflections. Those links are below:

• these two students feel they struggle (but only one does)
• these two feel they’ve made progress (and they have)
• these two are confident, and rightly so
• these two international students have struggled (one more than the other)

I hope to do more with reflection exercises next year.