How important is academic discourse that promotes new understandings and allows us to question what we know? In the current age of instant-messaging and Twitter (R), does academic conversation have a place? Frankly, we think that academic discourse is more important now than ever. Our civil society functions best when students, instructors, neighbors, and communities come together to question the information before us, so that decisions and directions are viable, helpful, and ethical. Academic conversations help us sort through the important and not-so-important themes of our lives and how we are to live. Academic conversations show us other ways of viewing, and they grow our own repertoire of ideas. Academic conversations teach us wonder, tolerance, humility, and the important fact that the world is bigger than our backyard. Understanding the art and pragmatism of academic conversations requires a building of trust, a willingness to share, and a mind for critical thinking. Guidance for holding conversations with meaning and doing philosophy with learners is modeled, as well as how implementing classroom and collegial discourse benefits our society.
Preface Jeffrey Herr Acknowledgements Introduction Twyla T. Miranda and Jeffrey Herr Part I: Defining and Understanding Academic Discourse Chapter 1: The Socratic Method Jeremy Byrd and Miriam Byrd Chapter 2: Dialogue as Experience Nakia S. Pope Chapter 3: Refining the Discourse of Collaboration: An Art Student's Perspective Travis Austin Part II: Students and Teachers, Talking and Listening Together Chapter 4: Dilemmas Matter: Promoting Reflective Engagement with Early Adolescents Jeffrey Herr Chapter 5: Charrette as Context and Process for Academic Discourse in Contemporary Higher Education: A Case Study Hilary Hughes Chapter 6: A Modified Oxford Tutorial: Doctoral Students Respond Twyla T. Miranda Chapter 7: Empower to be Empowered: Listening to the Student Voice Kenneth R. Austin Part III: Professional Discourse, Authentic Conversations Chapter 8: Modeling Conversations that Matter: How Dialogue Between Faculty and Administration Can Impact Culture, Practice, and Student Success Shane Naterman and Maryann Felps Chapter 9: The Missing Voice of Teachers in the National Reform Movement Penny Armstrong Chapter 10: Inner Dialogue: Reflections of Three Effective Educators Twyla T. Miranda Index About the Editors About the Contributors
