The purpose of this discussion session was to give people an opportunity to reflect on issues and questions raised during the first part of the conference, and to help them identify topics they would like to explore during the remainder of the conference. It was also intended to produce a written record of emerging themes and branching topics.

The organizers wanted the discussion to do more than this, however. They envisioned it as an exercise in the beginnings of collaboration, of reaching across disciplines and job descriptions to communicate ideas about student learning. For this reason, the discussion groups were created by dividing people into color groups, blue, pink, green, yellow, and purple. As people reviewed the written record produced by the discussion, then, they could identify which group had generated each comment or question and in this way find people who shared similar interests and concerns.

The written comments generated by these small discussion groups have been compiled here not only according to the topics originally assigned at the discussion session (when each comment could be placed into only one physical category), but also according to the color of the group generating the comment and the many topics emerging from the discussions themselves.

 

Please feel free to contact us with comments and questions!

Iris Jastram .............. ijastram@carleton.edu
Kristin Partlo ........... kpartlo@carleton.edu
Carolyn Sanford ......csanford@carleton.edu
Heather Tompkins .. htompkin@carleton.edu
Ann Zawistoski ....... azawisto@carleton.edu