The Skillful Teacher

We’ve Been Burned
Some students may have learned from past experience that speaking
out in discussions triggers attacks on them by other students or by
teachers. They know that the rhetoric of everyone’s voice counting
equally is contradicted by the reality of having to voice ideologically
correct opinions. If a student’s challenging of groupthink, or of pro-
fessorial authority, has led them to be mocked, defamed, or just put
in their “proper” place, then they will think long and hard before ever
speaking out again.
Several of the responses already mentioned in the previous chap-
ter address this feeling. For example, if you start a course with an
alumni panel of former students and (when you’re out of the room)
these former students assure new students that you won’t penalize
them for dissenting or critical views, this goes a long way to embold-
ening new students to risk speaking out. Again, responding non-
defensively and openly to CIQ criticisms will gradually convince
some students that you mean what you say about welcoming chal-
lenges to your ideas.
Anytime a student makes a comment that’s critical of you, you
can also acknowledge how difficult this must have been and thank
them for the comment. If other students jump in to save you by
pointing out to the critical student how he or she’s really just mis-
understood you, or if they start to try to shut this student down,
intervene immediately. Say that a commitment to open discourse
is indivisible and that you are trying to preserve the critical student’s
right to voice an alternate view. Point out that without critical
voices groups fall victim to groupthink. Ask the critical student to
say more about their criticisms, and let other students know that
you are trying to guard minority viewpoints.
If you spend some time at the outset of a course helping to
develop ground rules for respectful discourse, and if these rules
include a deliberate and regular effort to stop and make sure that dis-
senting views and critical comments are heard, enforce this. Call a
time out every twenty to thirty minutes and ask for students to do
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some structured devil’s advocacy where they argue against the pre-
vailing tenor of opinion in the discussion. If students are unwilling
to express alternative or challenging perspectives, make sure that
you do this yourself. In lectures, and in the discussion itself, regularly
argue against your own ideas or against an emerging consensus in the
group. Point out ideas and information that you have omitted, eth-
ical and moral dilemmas you have glossed over, contradictions in
your position you have ignored, and questions you were tempted to
avoid because you didn’t have good answers to them.