Teaching in an Election Year with Bethany Morrison

It is a presidential election year here in the United States, and that can make for some high-stakes discussions in our classes. I had been wanting to share some strategies for navigating those conversations, when earlier this month I saw a new blog post titled "Preparing to Teach During the 2024 Election" from Bethany Morrison, political scientist and assistant director at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) at the University of Michigan.

Bethany's blog post was part of the Promoting Democracy Teaching Series sponsored by CRLT and the Ginsberg Center, the university's community and civic engagement center. The post is full of advice and strategies for instructors teaching during this election season, so I invited Bethany of the Intentional Teaching podcast to share some of her insights.

In our conversation, we talk about making connections between course material and the election, managing high-stakes discussions and hot moments in the classroom, and encouraging voting and civic engagement among our students, among other topics. For example, Bethany's top three suggestions for teaching strategies when discussing the presidential election and related topics are:

1. Establish and regularly return to your discussion guidelines so that students know what kinds of engagement is welcome and productive.
2. Structure class activities so that students have time to think and reflect on what they're going to say before they say it.
3. Have a plan for any unexpected moments of tension or emotion, maybe one of the many ideas shared in this document from the Promoting Democracy Teaching Series.

What I appreciated about Bethany's approach is how she moved easily from big-picture topics like course goals and learning objectives to the very practical details of managing class discussions this election season. Whether the election is squarely in the middle of your course or you worry about election-related hot moments in your classes or you're curious about ways to connect your course to the current moment in U.S. politics, I highly recommend listening.

​You can listen to my interview with Bethany Morrison here, or search for "Intentional Teaching" in your podcast app.

Three Ideas for Teaching with or about Generative AI

It's apparently faculty learning community (FLC) season in my world right now, because I'm involved in, I think, seven FLCs this month, including five that are focusing on teaching and learning with generative AI. And maybe an eighth, if this group on alternative grading in STEM that I'm organizing takes off. One thing I love about FLC work is getting to hear teaching stories and examples from faculty all across the disciplines.

Earlier this week at one of the FLCs on teaching with AI I heard three great examples of teaching with or about AI that I wanted to share. The examples involved creating podcast-style audio summaries of readings to help students get into those readings, getting AI help to form student groups so that each group would have a common time to meet outside of class, and giving students a simple 0- to 4-point scale to be transparent about their use of AI on assignments.

See my new blog post, "Three Quick Examples of Teaching with and about Generative AI," for all details!

Three Questions for Me

Earlier this month, friend and colleague Josh Kim featured me and my work on his Learning Innovation blog on Inside Higher Ed. In his post "Three Questions for UVA's Derek Bruff," he asked me about my experience these past two years working remotely for centers for teaching and learning. If you're curious about what that work looks like and how it can be useful for a higher education institution, please check out Josh's interview with me. And many thanks to Josh for shining a spotlight on the teaching and learning work I've been doing lately.

Thanks for reading!

If you found this newsletter useful, please forward it to a colleague who might like it! That's one of the best ways you can support the work I'm doing here at Intentional Teaching.

Or consider supporting Intentional Teaching through Patreon. For just $3 US per month, you can help defray production costs for the podcast and newsletter and you get access to Patreon-only interviews and bonus clips.