Evaluation

What have we learned?

In the first two years of the Discussion Project, survey results have consistently shown that participants deepen their knowledge about what discussion is and the characteristics of good discussion. Participants report feeling better able to prepare students for discussion and for treating discussion as an academic skill that can be taught and assessed. Participants enjoy the hands-on approach to the training, and they greatly appreciate the opportunity to discuss teaching and learning with colleagues from across campus. For a recent testimonial from a Discussion Project alumna, see Diana Rodriguez-Gomez share her Discussion Project experience in the video below, or linked here.

Where are we headed?

The Discussion Project has received a two-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to study how the Discussion Project training affects participants’ instructional practice and how their students experience and learn from discussions in class. As part of the study, we are expanding from two to six cohorts per year, and in the second year of the study, we will investigate how well the Discussion Project translates to campuses that differ from UW–Madison. The main questions for the study include:

How do the Discussion Project training and resources affect instructors’ abilities to create and facilitate high-quality classroom discussion?
How does the Discussion Project affect how students experience and learn from discussions in courses taught by instructors trained by the Discussion Project?
What are the best mechanisms to both scale the Discussion Project and extend it to other institutions of higher education (IHEs) with demographically different students than UW–Madison (the institution in which it was developed)?

Discussion Project Alumni Receive Distinguished Teaching Awards

Congratulations to the following Discussion Project alumni for receiving a Distinguished Teaching Award! For more information about Distinguished Teaching Awards, visit the Office of the Secretary of the Faculty’s website.

Michael Thornton	Majid Sarmadi	Nancy Marshall	Catalina Toma	Rosemary Russ	Judith Houck
Sara McKinnon	Kate Vieira	Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen	Juan Egea	Joshua Calhoun	Jerome Camal
Ajay Sethi	Mitra Sharafi	Jeremy Morris	Yoshiko Herrera	Kassem Fawaz	Lori Lopez

Affiliation of Participants: 117 Departments and Programs

Accounting and Information Systems	Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences	Civil and Environmental Engineering	Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis	Geoscience	Library and Information Studies	Nutritional Sciences	Radiology
Aerospace Studies (Air Force ROTC)	Bacteriology	Civil Society and Community Studies	Educational Policy Studies	German, Nordic, and Slavic	Life Sciences Communication	Occupational Therapy	Real Estate and Urban Land Economics
African Cultural Studies	Biochemistry	Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies	Educational Psychology	History	Management and Human Resources	Operations and Information Management	Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education
African Studies Program	Biocore	Communication Arts	Electrical and Computer Engineering	Horticulture	Marketing	Pathobiological Sciences	Religious Studies
Afro-American Studies	Biological Systems Engineering	Communication Sciences and Disorders	Engineering Physics	Human Development and Family Studies	Materials Science and Engineering	Pediatrics	Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs
Agricultural and Applied Economics	Biology	Community and Environmental Sociology	English	Integrated Liberal Studies	Mathematics	Pharmacy	Social Work
Agroecology	Biomedical Engineering	Computer Sciences	Entomology	Integrative Biology	Mechanical Engineering	Philosophy	Sociology
American Indian Studies	Biostatistics and Medical Informatics	Consumer Science	Family Medicine	Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies	Medical History and Bioethics	Physical Therapy	Soil Science
Animal Sciences	Botany	Continuing Studies	Finance, Investment and Banking	International Studies	Medical Physics	Physics	Spanish and Portuguese
Anthropology	Business	Counseling Psychology	Food Science	Jewish Studies	Medicine	Planning and Landscape Architecture	Special Education
Art	Cell and Regenerative Biology	Curriculum and Instruction	Forest and Wildlife Ecology	Journalism and Mass Communication	Military Science (Army ROTC)	Plant Pathology	Statistics
Art Department	Center for Asian Studies—South Asian Studies	Dairy Science	French and Italian	Kinesiology	Music	Political Science	Wisconsin Institute for Science Education and Community Engagement
Art History	Chemical and Biological Engineering	Dance	Gender and Women’s Studies	Language Sciences	Naval Science (Naval ROTC)	Population Health Sciences
Asian Languages and Cultures	Chemistry	Design Studies	Genetics	Law	Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies	Psychology
Astronomy	Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies	Economics	Geography	Legal Studies	Nursing	Public Affairs

“This is probably the most valuable teaching-centric experience I’ve had in my 11 years on campus.”
– Catherine Arnott Smith, Associate Professor, iSchool