Due Date:

Weight: 20%

Description: You will be grouped into small inquiry groups. This group will be your mini-learning community for the duration of the course. With this group, you will engage in critical discussions on the readings/ideas for each topic.

As a group, your first task is to complete a group contract/agreement in which you will determine which group member will be leading each topic and set some mutual expectations for your discussions. Please use the template below.

EDCI339_InquiryGroupContract_Template

You may also find this resource on making group contracts helpful.

As a group, you will choose how you wish to conduct the discussions. You may host asynchronous discussions using Mattermost or another tool. Or you may choose to schedule synchronous discussions in person or on Zoom, another video conference tool, or in person.

As a Leader

Every student will lead one of the discussions. Depending on the size of your group, you may end up co-leading a discussion. The leader is responsible for facilitating the discussion by creating guiding questions based on the main ideas in the readings, videos, and listenings for the module. They are also responsible for ensuring that all group members are engaged in the discussion and have an opportunity to share their ideas.

Please note that your submission must include the following:
  • your guiding questions for the discussion
  • a summary of the discussion
  • point of interest: what ideas, readings or topics did your group find most interesting?
  • points of convergence: what idea or topics did your group members agree on?
  • points of divergence: what ideas or topics did your group members disagree on?
  • 1-2 “pearls” or interesting observations or points of analysis from the group

You will also reflect on your role as a leader. What did you do well as a leader? What could you improve or what would you do differently next time? This reflection should draw on your experiences and the peer feedback.

Your submission should include the summary, reflection and the peer feedback.

 

As a Participant

Every student is expected to participate in all 4 discussions. In your group contract, you will mutually agree on the expectations for participation, but for all groups participants are expected to engage in respectful dialogue in response to the leader’s questions and peers ideas. As a participant, you will provide feedback to the leader on their facilitation of the discussion. You should submit the peer feedback to the leader.

EDCI339_InquiryGroupPeerFeedback_Template

You can find the list of groups on Mattermost or in the Google Drive folder.