#  Engaging a Wide Range of Viewpoints 

 



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There is a tension between an expansive stance towards diverse viewpoints and the methodological and argumentative norms of FAS courses. In most academic fields and courses, not all ideas are equally valid. Instructors help students understand how a specific course or discipline evaluates ideas and approaches knowledge creation. Knowing the methods through which knowledge is formed and assessed enables students to explore and test a variety of perspectives in their course.

Techniques for engaging with a wide range of viewpoints in the classroom include:

- Help students understand how (course or disciplinary) context shapes the pursuit of learning. For example, creationism might not be a live topic of debate in a biology course but could be in a sociology, religion, or government class.
- Be transparent with students about the methods of evidence usage and argumentation that shape knowledge claims in your course. For example, history courses rely on a judicious, usually verbal analysis of primary sources whereas economics classes often employ quantitative methods.
- Encourage students to think critically about their own prior viewpoints and to engage with perspectives different than their own. For example, instructors can prompt students with questions like “what prior understanding do you have about this topic?” and “what shaped your ideas about this topic?”
- Depersonalize perspectives on a topic to help students explore different viewpoints without attaching those ideas to their own opinions. For example, instructors can assign students to various “sides” in a debate, or can assign groups of students to surface, describe, and analyze a range of perspectives.
- Normalize discomfort and disagreement as an essential part of the learning process. For example, instructors can explain to students how past disagreements and debates produced a current accepted understanding in the field or course.
- Push back against the formation of premature consensus in class discussions. For example, instructors can invite additional ideas with questions like “Can anyone think of another point of view?” or “Are there similar or differing views in the room?”
- Attempt to engage new and different perspectives with curiosity and humility rather than judgment, while also submitting them to critical scrutiny. For example, instructors can ask for more detail, request connections to course material, and invite examinations of evidence.