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
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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
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African Studies Program | Biocore | Communication Arts | Electrical and Computer Engineering | Horticulture | Marketing | Pathobiological Sciences |
Religious Studies
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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
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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
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Anthropology | Business | Counseling Psychology | Food Science | Jewish Studies | Medicine | Planning and Landscape Architecture |
Special Education
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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
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Art History | Chemical and Biological Engineering | Dance | Gender and Women’s Studies | Language Sciences | Naval Science (Naval ROTC) |
Population Health Sciences
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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