Dear Members of the Georgetown University Community,
As we approach the second half of our academic semester, I share some new resources and reflections about our responsibilities to one another in an academic community.
The mission statement for Georgetown includes reverence for the principle that “serious and sustained dialogue among people of different faiths, cultures, and ideas promotes intellectual, ethical, and spiritual understanding.”
One key environment for living this mission is the classroom, whether it be a large lecture class, lab, clinic or a small seminar.
Practices of Students
For students, engagement means active exploration of the course content. Each student should feel free to ask questions to clarify the material, no matter how simple the question may be. They must be open to challenging fundamental assumptions about the ideas being shared.
Listening carefully fosters deeper understanding and a sense of shared intellectual pursuit. This atmosphere is enhanced by the Jesuit notion of the “presupposition,” which assumes that all members of the class are acting with good faith and are sincerely grappling with the material. Through this, students can focus on the ideas under discussion, not the classmates presenting them.
Practices of Instructors
Instructors are key to shaping a classroom environment that encourages exploration and dialogue. Drawing on their disciplinary expertise, instructors display curiosity, intellectual humility, and a willingness of ideas to be challenged. When instructors themselves are open to opposing views and unexpected directions in discussion, they reinforce the value of learning as a shared endeavor.
Classroom Norms
With these practices, instructors and students create a classroom environment that supports thoughtful intellectual risk-taking, academic honesty, and a sense of trust. When everyone feels safe to ask questions, share ideas, and explore new perspectives, learning deepens. Any fear of reprisals, social media commentary, or criticisms of in-class participation can stifle their joint endeavors of grappling with the course content.
From these aspirations above, we are committed to the following classroom norms:
- Everyone should be able to trust that the classroom is a protected space for the free exchange of ideas. Taking surreptitious or unauthorized audio or video recordings of classes undermines that trust.
- Students and instructors should respond to each other with respect and not belittle individual comments in the class but instead support the engagement of all.
- Both students and instructors should ask for clarification of others’ ideas that were unclear or awkwardly expressed, responding with humility and the presupposition of goodwill to all engaged in the course.
- While students can share the content of class discussions with those outside the class, they should not reveal the identity of individual speakers, sharing only the content of the ideas discussed.
New Resources
The Center for New Designs for Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) has developed a new set of ideas to help encourage and support positive classroom engagement. You can find these resources on the CNDLS website. Additional resources for instructors are also available.
I hope that these reflections will give you encouragement during this period of mid-terms and that these resources will be a tool for you going forward.
Sincerely,
Robert M. Groves
Interim President