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Paul Grobstein's picture

two cultures in one class

Submitted by Paul Grobstein on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 5:16pm.


From joint class, 28 October
(click on image for enlargement)

 Some similarities

  • "philosophical", go deep
  • no hand raising
  • class diversity
  • not "class" like others

Some differences

  • AD section less loud, more polite/structured, less argumentative
  • PG section louder, more raucous/argumentative
  • PG section mostly discussion re topics, more use of student papers in AD section
  • AD more directive, PG rarer to interject
  • AD "Anne" from outset, PG -> "Paul"

Rich conversation, partially documented/excerpted above.  Help deciphering notes, additions, corrections, further thoughts all welcome, of course. My sense was that, as in many cultures, participants in each culture felt their distinctive practices were preferable, which make this a nice illustration of how cultures first interact at interfaces between them.  The issue of how each culture might impact the other was only briefly explored (students in AD section would have to get louder or those in PG section quieter) but might be worth going into further.  What more effective cultures might be conceived by observing the contrasts between these two?   

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