Paulo Freire continually asked, "What is to know?" I want to add another open question: How do you know you are right on, doing what folks truly need for their learning and yours? This week I realized: Joy is the measure. I feel and realize deep joy in learning and teaching – seeing groups of […]
In the TED video shown below, Simon Sinek talks about his discovery about what separates successful organizations, leaders, or entrepreneurs from those who are not. What made Apple, and Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Wright Brothers successful, when in each case there were plenty of others out there doing what they were doing? Sinek […]
Monday was a dark cold March day in Raleigh North Carolina. As I tried to get moving, and go to my morning swim, I found myself sluggish and slow. then I opened the laptop: VOILA! Peter Noteboom’s photo albums from his HAITI Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach course with PVO group leaders. Wow! Then […]
As I sit down today to write my blog post I am thinking of the people of Japan. I find it hard to focus on much other than the staggering news reports about the destruction of the massive earthquake and tsunami, which was strong enough to shift the earth’s axis, causing the planet to spin a […]
There are so many great examples in the latest issue of Voices in Dialogue about how Dialogue Education™ is uniquely suited to peace building efforts, from negotiating conflict between divorcing couples to crafting a peace treaty between rebel groups and the military in the Philippines. Dialogue is a powerful tool for achieving authentic and lasting […]
We had an inspiring dialogue about the usefulness of a tool to assure quality Dialogue Education designs and teaching. How do we know we are doing the best Dialogue Education with our students? Is there a checklist we can use to assure that we have thought of everything, done everything, executed as well as possible, […]
Nearly eight months ago I wrote a post for this blog entitled “Dialogue Education Has Turned Me Into A Rebel,” in which I patted myself on the back for not feeling guilty about disliking talking head panel discussions. I allowed myself to feel justified about ignoring the panelists; instead of listening to them I fantasized […]
This month’s Dialogue Education™ Tips and Tools focuses on asking and creating questions as a part of a Learning Needs and Resource Assessment (LNRA). What questions do you ask? (Or perhaps wish you had asked?) As an introvert, I find making a phone call or two to people, whether they have or have not responded […]
Every time I have tea with a friend by my fire, I learn something important. Here are two examples: Susan Johnstone came to review her design for her Presentation of her research for her M.A. As we worked, I realized for the first time that immediate indicators of learning are often conceptual until there is […]
Making Peace A voice from the dark called out, “The poets must give us imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar imagination of disaster. Peace, not only the absence of war.” But peace, like a poem, is not there ahead of itself, can’t be imagined before it is made, can’t be known except in […]