In a polarized society, it is a university's responsibility to offer courses that explore highly controversial issues. Traditional forms of debate may create barriers to knowledge and entrenchment of perspectives, with students self-limiting their ability to develop informed opinions. We describe an active learning, double-blinded approach to…

By deepening students' discussion skills, schools can play a key role in bridging communication divides in our society. As the nation has become increasingly politically polarized, how can educators teach constructive dialogue in the classroom? The authors--education experts and researchers--offer seven strategies for helping students engage in…

There is a steady line of academic discourse around the topic of controversial issues and how to approach them in and through education. In this line of discourse, discussion is widely seen as a primary method of democratic education that is especially suitable to foster its major educational aims, such as tolerance, reciprocal respect, or…

Too often, the authors assert, discussion of controversial issues in high school classrooms is channeled through the teacher, rather than engaging students in discussion with one another. Teachers fear that students won't know how to talk to one another productively about issues, or that they'll end up in shouting matches. But when…

The conversation starts quickly as two students come together in a 10th grade social studies classroom, half-way through a role play activity a symposium begins. Both students are sporting "Hello, my name is…" stickers on their shirts, and each attempts to speak in character. One represents an anti-whaling activist. Helen stands holding…

Centrality and fragility of university in the long-lasting debates over the functions of higher education and its role in the interplay of wider socioeconomic, political and cultural forces is an ever recurrent issue. It seems that exactly these debates called for constant public attention towards academia and helped retain its core function of…

College honors courses provide an opportunity to tackle controversial topics in an atmosphere that encourages active learning, critical thinking, and open discussion. This venue is particularly appropriate for examining the debate about teaching intelligent design (ID) in public school science classes. A one-credit honors enrichment seminar taught…

In contrast to "Just Say No" lectures on drug use common in K to 12 drug education programs (e.g., Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E.), this activity used peer teaching in an Introductory Psychology course to promote active learning and open discussion of controversial issues about drug use. Working in small groups, students researched…

Ten students in a graduate-level course on Historical and Policy Perspectives in Higher Education held face-to-face and online discussions on five controversial topics: diversity, academic freedom, political tolerance, affirmative action, and gender. Upon completion of each discussion, they assessed their comfort, honesty, concern for others'…

ICT tools have been developed to facilitate web-based learning through and learning about argumentation. In this paper we will present an example of a learning activity mediated by Digalo--software for knowledge sharing through visually supported discussion--developed in a university setting. Our aim is to examine, in particular, socio-cognitive…

Using academic conflicts for instructional purposes is one of the most dynamic, involving, and least used teaching strategies. Teachers fear divisiveness and also lack fitting instructional models for structuring controversial discussions. This article discusses the controversy process and how teachers can organize and use it to enhance cognitive…

Communities, schools, and individual teachers differ widely in their understanding of whether the classroom should be a place for helping children make sense of tough topics. In this "Occasional Paper," four educators describe their approaches to tough topics in the classroom--gender, sexual identity, death, and diversity. Despite differing…

Since the time of Kinsey, sexuality education courses in colleges across the country have drawn large numbers of co-eds to their rosters. As educators move beyond discussions about the facts of anatomy, physiology, and biology, they increasingly look to technological advances to further the art of teaching. Taking a conversational approach to…