- Featured CTLE Resources
- Five Recommended Resources
- What Faculty Actions do Students Find Helpful?
- “Flashpoints” Classroom Video Vignettes and Guides
- Further Reading: Creating/Co-Creating Civility and Community Agreements
- Further Reading: Difficult Classroom Conversations
- Further Reading: Encouraging Civility and Navigating “Hot Moments”
Featured CTLE Resources
Workshop Slides for Teaching in Tumultuous Times: The Value of Scripts
Preparing For and Responding to Challenges and Challenging Moments in the Classroom
Five Recommended Resources
Creating Classroom Community Agreements | Inside Higher Ed
Difficult Dialogues | University of Delaware Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning
Teaching After an Election | Boston College Center for Teaching Excellence
What Faculty Actions do Students Find Helpful?
The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence supports SU educators in navigating these challenging times in their courses and interactions with students. We encourage faculty to acknowledge the seriousness and complexity of recent events and to recognize that their students – like faculty – are affected in many different ways.
In a post-9/11 survey of university students, Huston and DiPietro (2007) analyzed student perceptions of faculty actions after a tragedy. They report that students found a wide array of actions to be helpful, ranging from simple, brief actions to more involved responses. These included, for example,
- Reassured students who were distressed that they would have opportunities to review new material again later
- Mentioned available support on campus
- Offered to talk privately with anyone who might want to
- Integrated the topic into a lesson or the course
- Offered extensions on assignment due dates
- Led a minute of silence or reflection
- Read an inspirational text
- Mentioned ways that people can get involved in helping (e.g., volunteer in the community)
Students reported that it was not helpful when faculty (a) didn’t mention the collective tragedy and conflict, or (b) when they acknowledged it, but kept going with the course without offering any help to students who might be feeling stress or trauma. Faculty have different kinds of scholarly expertise, course contexts, and approaches to teaching. No single approach fits all contexts. Students appreciate faculty who respond in unique and humane ways (Huston & DiPietro, 2007, p. 219).
“Flashpoints” Classroom Video Vignettes and Guides
The FLASHPOINTS series is a video series created to respond to oppression, privilege, and exclusions in Higher Education in the form of filmed classroom vignettes. Each vignette features a faculty member responding to or initiating a challenging incident with a student/s. The vignettes are all open-ended, and do not present an optimum “solution,” rather, the vignettes are designed to promote a discussion about the role and responsibility of faculty/leaders in creating and maintaining classroom learning environments which are inclusive and anti-oppressive.
Flashpoints | Syracuse University Libraries Open Access Institutional Repository
Further Reading: Creating/Co-Creating Civility and Community Agreements
Co-creating with Students: Practical Considerations and Approaches | Times Higher Education
Co-Creation | The Clemente Course in the Humanities
Crafting Community Agreements | Barnard Center for Engaged Pedagogy
Ground Rules | Carnegie Mellon Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence
Ground Rules: Examples and Resources | University of Maryland Faculty Center
Group Agreements | Harvard University Derek Bok Center
Civility and Classroom Agreements | CSU San Marcos
Creating Community Agreements | Princeton University McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning
Student Civility Contract | Ohio University
Further Reading: Difficult Classroom Conversations
Challenging Conversations Resources | Reed College Center for Teaching and Learning
Controversial or Sensitive Topics | Baylor University Academy for Teaching and Learning
Difficult Dialogues | University of Connecticut Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Difficult Dialogues | Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching
Difficult Discussions | Georgetown University Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship
Election and Post-Election Conversations in the Classroom | Barnard Center for Engaged Pedagogy
Guidelines for Discussing Difficult or High-Stakes Topics | University of Michigan CRLT
Navigating Difficult Conversations | University of Nebraska Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor
Navigating Difficult Conversations in the Classroom | Kent State University
Navigating Difficult Moments | Harvard University Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning
Teaching During Elections | Duke University Faculty Advancement
Further Reading: Encouraging Civility and Navigating “Hot Moments”
Addressing Destructive Behavior in the Classroom | OneHE
Beyond Inclusion: Education for Civic Participation and Engagement | Bryan Dewsbury
Civility in the Classroom: A Better Approach | Academic Impressions
Classroom Incivilities | Baylor University Academy for Teaching and Learning
Disembroiling HOT Moments in the Classroom | Inside Higher Ed
Encouraging Civility | Indiana University Bloomington Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning
Getting Started with Managing Classroom Conflict | Cornell University Center for Teaching Innovation
How Do I Navigate Hot Moments in the Classroom? | UMass Amherst Center for Teaching and Learning
Managing “Hot Moments” in the Classroom | University of Denver Office of Teaching and Learning
Navigating Difficult Moments | Harvard University Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning
Some Principles and Practices to Enhance Classroom Emotional Safety | Colleen Cameron
Speaking Up Without Tearing Down | Learning for Justice
Teaching After an Election | Boston College Center for Teaching Excellence
Teaching in a Time of Conflict | University of Pittsburgh Center for Teaching and Learning
What Does it Take to Have Civil Discourse in the Classroom? | Chronicle of Higher Education
Want to Teach Civility? Start With Intellectual Safety. | Learning for Justice