Centering Student Voices in the Clinic Seminar

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Session Type: Lightning Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: Marriott St. Louis Grand

Room: Landmark 4

Floor: Ground Floor, Conference Plaza

Part of what makes clinical teaching special is that we are working with our students on shared goals. We teach through practice, and, as a result, we have the opportunity—and the responsibility—to be in dialogue with our students, encouraging them to learn from each other and not only from us.

However, in the context of a clinic seminar, it’s often easy to fall into “old” patterns of teacher-centered learning. One form that takes is IRE: Initiate, Respond, Evaluate, where the teacher asks a question, a student responds, and the teacher “evaluates” their response before asking another question. Sometimes this is necessary and useful, and there are often good reasons for teachers to respond to what students say. We might highlight a particularly interesting or meaningful point, ask a follow-up question, or add a new layer to the conversation based on our own experiences or perspectives. Still, we often talk more than we need to, and our frequent responses can stand in the way of students engaging meaningfully with each other.

Participants in our lightning session will learn concrete strategies for shifting class discussions away from IRE, including 1.) Being transparent with students about the pedagogical changes we are trying to make, 2.) Getting comfortable with silence, and 3.) Framing follow-up questions in a way that invites students to engage with each others’ ideas and contribute new perspectives to the conversation.

One example of a time we can put dialogic dialogue into practice and facilitate student-centered discussion is during norm-setting conversations at the start of a course or difficult conversation. Attendees will have the opportunity to practice facilitating dialogic dialogue in small groups.