Critical Thinking - Deliberative Dialogues Scholarship Event

Scholarship Event Information

Registration: https://www.shsu.edu/dept/fye/common-reading-program/contests.html (Link at top of page)

What Is It? - The event emphasizes deliberation (communication and understanding nuance), not debate (not winners/losers). We seek to help individuals critically think through data and experiences to find common ground.

Food/Drink? – Yes, we feed our participants dinner and dessert, with free-flowing coffee.

Who? – Events are open to students, faculty, staff, and admin (and occasionally community members). The more diverse the population, the better the conversations.

Groups? – Groups will be formed at random to better ensure a diversity of thought and experience.

Scholarship? – The process will be documented and evaluated for each participating group’s ability to critically analyze data, find shared values/common ground, identify sources of bias in thinking, and seek a variety of stakeholder input. Students in winning teams are able to win scholarship funds for the subsequent semester. On occasion, we can afford funding to the SHSU employees in the winning groups as well.

Stay the Entire Time? – We ask that participants stay the entire event (especially students) if they wish to be considered for a scholarship (or one-time-pay, or OM purchase).

Typical Feeling at Event? – Participants report feeling anxious at the beginning of the event (expecting a debate or conflict) but end up engaging in meaningful/relaxed/productive conversations. We consistently have to remind participants when the event is over, that they can leave (folks want to keep talking).

Resources:

NIFI , NCDD, Braver Angels, https://sustaineddialogue.org/, https://openmindplatform.org/