Person throws up their hands and turns away, by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

The LARA method for tense talks

November 3, 2020 Mira Vogel 0

What is it? As outlined in ‘Creating safe spaces and brave spaces‘, university learning often involves encounters between students with different social viewpoints. If these discussions are overwhelmed with emotion, students will find it hard […]

People meeting in a room, looking serious

Creating safe spaces and brave spaces

October 28, 2020 Mira Vogel 0

What are they? Safe spaces came into existence to give people from a marginalised or persecuted group a way to meet, sometimes with political purposes, without having to defend themselves against prejudice or abuse. The […]

Call out icons, ellipses and arrows

Discussion forums

April 2, 2020 Mira Vogel 0

What is it? Forums allow students and staff to have a group conversation, with each participant posting their contributions at times convenient for them. Most posts are text-based, but often support images, links and even […]

"The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C." at Queens College, CUNY in Fall 2012

Role-play

August 20, 2019 Mira Vogel 0

What is it? Role-play is experiential learning based on perspective-taking within a scenario. Participants inform themselves about the viewpoint of an interest group or character and then perform that role according to a set of […]

Students sit round a table in a small room concentrating on a problem.

Problem-based learning

August 9, 2019 Mira Vogel 0

What is it? Tutorial groups of eight to twelve students address realistic, ill-structured scenarios in complex, interdisciplinary domains, through a defined sequence of steps facilitated by a tutor. PBL is a curriculum approach – a […]

From the back of a lecture theatre - Prf Krsreenivasan Lecture

Confidence to contribute

May 5, 2019 Mira Vogel 1

What is it? Some students tend to contribute disproportionately to discussions while others hardly ever speak. This guide offers some alternative ways to even out student participation in a group discussion. Why do it? Hearing […]

Fishbowl discussion graphic

Fishbowl discussions

May 4, 2019 Mira Vogel 0

What is it? Fishbowl is a discussion among students in an inner circle surrounded by an outer circle of silent active listeners. The inner group is asked to contrasting perspectives or particular roles. For example, […]

Continuum Cast by themarina

Barometer walk

May 1, 2019 Mira Vogel 0

What is it? This activity is useful for exploring multiple perspectives – these could be values, approaches to solving a problem, or certainty about a given phenomenon. The educator poses a statement or question they […]