Student Perceptions of Shakespeare as a Pedagogical Resource

Team

• Réme Bohlin, Ph.D. Candidate, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (English)

Executive Summary

The debate about Shakespeare's relevance in the twenty-first century, indeed the relevance of literary studies in general, is long-standing. However, undergraduate students are often absent from these debates. My project seeks to recruit undergraduate voices in the creation of an online, open-source Shakespeare class that directly addresses these questions. By surveying students, I hope to open up a conversation that, while urgent, has grown stale. Often, conversations about Shakespeare’s relevance begin and end with requirements for the major: should English majors be required to take a Shakespeare class? However, revising major requirements does not adequately address questions of relevance. How can questions of value and relevance be taken up in the (virtual) classroom?

The Voice in the Body: Contemplative Practices to Support Dialogue in Online, Hybrid, and In-Person Courses

Team

• Tina Huey, Adjunct Faculty, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Academic Specialist, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
• Martina Rosenberg, Director, Teaching and Learning Assessment, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Executive Summary

In online environments the careful attunement to timing, tone, energy, interest level, and interpersonal dynamics that in-person teaching permits is much more challenging for both student and instructor. This impacts engagement and motivation, but also vulnerability, a key disposition in dialogical practice. Because it takes place in a space that is public, but that cannot be “read” through the body, distance learning poses a special challenge in courses that center dialogue. We believe that contemplative practices (CP) support dialogue in in-person classes, and are curious about the pedagogical potential of body-centered and ekphrastic meditation exercises in online courses. Contemplative practices include structured dialogue that links mindfulness and soulfulness (Harrell) of the self with compassion for the other. Our goal is to work with instructors in 6-10 courses, facilitate instructor reflection on the role of contemplative practices in dialogue, solicit feedback from students, and produce a video guide with simple techniques for other instructors. In a series of follow-up workshops with instructors, we will explore and identify reasons why dialogue is difficult online, from the point of view of both the instructor and the students. In courses with online components, we wish to explore CP to frame both synchronous and asynchronous dialogue. That being said, we wish to define specific activities in collaboration with participating instructors.

Collaborative Conversation Initiative

Team

• Stephen Armstrong, Social Studies Consultant, Connecticut State Department of Education
• Sally Whipple, Executive Director, Connecticut Democracy Center
• Yesenia Karas ‘21 (MAT), Central Connecticut State University
• Megan Villanova ‘21 (MSW), UConn School of Social Work

Executive Summary

Our program’s goal is to introduce the Encounters discussion model and make it accessible to Connecticut educators and students using a variation called Collaborative Conversations, which we piloted in 2019. Teachers and students who participated in the pilot valued both the use of shared readings to ground discussion and the practice of uninterrupted listening. Collaborative Conversation’s fundamental structure applies dialogue and deliberation to whatever topic is chosen by participating high schools. The format allows students to learn content and interrogate it through discussion, rather than debate. Our project will provide written information and training designed to help teachers and students engage more fully in the model and its practice, and to replicate it in the future. We plan to create a facilitator handbook outlining the program’s goals and approaches, as well as information that will enable trained participants to replicate the program in the future. Our team will then train a team of teachers and students as classroom facilitators who will conduct on-site Collaborative Conversations sessions in at least six Connecticut high schools. After these sessions are completed, our team will survey all participating facilitators and students, targeting participant experience. We will measure student engagement and understanding. The feedback will be used to inform revisions to the facilitator handbook.

Participatory Budgeting at UConn

Team

• Richard Frieder, Hartford Decide$
• Christine Caruso, University of Saint Joseph
• Nana Amos, Program Manager, Dodd Center
• Elnara Klicheva, Program Specialist, Dodd Center

Executive Summary

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic, community-driven process in which the members of a community (whether a university, municipality, or other organization or institution) collaborate to decide how to spend a designated part of a budget. The aim of PB, parts of which have a significant dialogic element to them, is to engage community members in a process of identifying and developing potential projects and then holding a vote to determine which of them will be funded. PB results in the implementation of important projects and, equally important, also builds the capacity of multiple stakeholders with diverse interests to work together for the greater good of the community.
First used in Brazil in 1989, PB came to the U.S. about ten years ago and is now used in several cities around the country. More recently, a few universities have started implementing PB.
PB offers several potential benefits to universities including:

• PB helps build a sense of community on campus.
• PB stimulates civic engagement on campus and provides an opportunity to learn about the democratic process.
• PB provides opportunities for students to learn more about the campus and what's available - as a result they will better access resources of the university.
• PB enhances academic learning in subject areas such as economics, political science, and others.

In this project, the team will explore and begin designing a PB initiative at the UConn Hartford campus and perhaps other campuses, building interest and relationships that will foster implementation next year. The team will also investigate possible collaborations with Hartford’s PB initiative (Hartford Decide$), and with high schools that are interested in PB.