When deciding for housing last year I was talking with my roommate and we decided to join a living learning community. We looked at them and decided to join the living learning community, Leadership and Social Change because it was not related to either of our majors and something we were both interested in. Going in I wasn’t really sure how I would enjoy the learning community. I am a rather quiet, reserved person and don’t really take a big part in group discussions. Back in October the week following midterms my learning community held a group discussion in the lounge on my floor. The discussion was taking place because of the sit ins happening on campus during mid terms weeks. My RA is Jonathan Pulphus and he was leading the sit in. We had the chance to come together and share our views, use mediating language and comment on other people’s views. The point of this was to bring out a dialogue and allow people in the learning community to understand different viewpoints. This discussion was slotted to last for an hour but ended up lasting for three hours just because so many people had so many different points and wanted to share. A great deal of rhetoric was being used that day and in many discussions to follow about the same topic and different topics. Rhetoric is the art of persuasive writing or speaking. While we were not necessarily trying to persuade each other, we were always arguing for or defending our points of view. Using rhetoric and logic was very useful in these discussions because it allowed me to better defend and make my points.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Group Discussions and Dialogue
When deciding for housing last year I was talking with my roommate and we decided to join a living learning community. We looked at them and decided to join the living learning community, Leadership and Social Change because it was not related to either of our majors and something we were both interested in. Going in I wasn’t really sure how I would enjoy the learning community. I am a rather quiet, reserved person and don’t really take a big part in group discussions. Back in October the week following midterms my learning community held a group discussion in the lounge on my floor. The discussion was taking place because of the sit ins happening on campus during mid terms weeks. My RA is Jonathan Pulphus and he was leading the sit in. We had the chance to come together and share our views, use mediating language and comment on other people’s views. The point of this was to bring out a dialogue and allow people in the learning community to understand different viewpoints. This discussion was slotted to last for an hour but ended up lasting for three hours just because so many people had so many different points and wanted to share. A great deal of rhetoric was being used that day and in many discussions to follow about the same topic and different topics. Rhetoric is the art of persuasive writing or speaking. While we were not necessarily trying to persuade each other, we were always arguing for or defending our points of view. Using rhetoric and logic was very useful in these discussions because it allowed me to better defend and make my points.
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I'm also in this learning community and it has benefited me and I've learned more than I thought I would. When I was applying for housing last year, I picked 'Leadership and Social Change' on a whim and didn't really think much of it. But as the year went on, I'm glad that I ended up in it. I think the learning community brought people with the same values and interests together and I've gotten so much out of it as opposed to just living on a regular floor
ReplyDeleteI think that it is really great your learning community had a chance to discuss this. There were so many opinions about the matter posted on social media, and talks throughout the campus that it was hard to wrap your head around everything. I understand how the use of mediating language is very important in making sure you do not offend other people and their views.
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