• Course Design & Preparation
• Course Management
• Course Materials
• Exam Schedules and Information
• Strengthening Your Teaching
• Policy Areas at HKS

Course Management

Faculty Checklist

Below is a checklist of the tasks that must be completed by faculty in preparing to offer a course, with links to more detailed information on each topic.

Course Description for Catalog

Descriptions for both fall and spring courses must be submitted to the Office of Teaching support by late March of the previous academic year. See Proposing a New Course for a brief discussion of the course description and other requirements for the catalog pages.

Course Schedule

The Office of Teaching Support schedules all HKS courses. Schedules are drafted in late June, sent to the faculty for comment in early July, and published on the Courses pages on the Internet on August 1. See Scheduling Courses.

Planning for Oversubscribed Courses

All Kennedy School students are allocated a certain number of points to use in bidding for oversubscribed courses. If the course is one that might be oversubscribed, the bidding process must be discussed with the Registrar prior to the semester. See the Information for Faculty on the Registrar's Course Enrollment website for a description of the online enrollment and bidding process.

Syllabus

The syllabus must be submitted to the Office of Teaching Support well in advance of the semester. The specific date changes slightly according to the calendar, but syllabi are generally due no later than August 4 for fall courses (including Module Period 2) and no later than December 4 for spring courses (including Module Period 4). Faculty are responsible for posting the syllabus on the Class Page.

For requirements regarding information that must be provided to students and recommendations on syllabus content click here.

Course Materials

Course materials come in many forms: textbooks, course packets, library reserve lists, course web pages, etc. Many of these must be nailed down well before the start of the semester. See Due Dates for Course Materials for deadlines.

Course Assistants and Teaching Fellows (CAs and TFs)

The process of recruiting and assigning CAs and TFs for the next year begins in April. For details on the process and on the kinds of work they may be asked to do, see the CAs and TFs section: Overview and Duties. Fall term CAs and TFs are assigned by August 1, spring term by late November.

Review Sessions

The Office of Teaching Support schedules all weekly review sessions along with the rest of the schedule. Hence the request for a review must be submitted to the Assistant Dean for Teaching Support by late March of the previous academic year. For details on this and on reserving a classroom for a special review session, see LINK to Review Sessions.

Faculty Office Hours

All faculty are expected to hold at least two hours of office hours per week, including the reading period and exam weeks, at a regular time each week. Each faculty member should post a sign up sheet on his or her door so that students may reserve time.

Rules of Classroom Conduct

Success in managing a class, especially in a course that relies heavily on class discussion, depends in large part on establishing clear rules of operation, preferably before the class starts. Moreover, it's easier to impose such rules when they are viewed as widely used in many classes. The following seven rules were codified by a member of the HKS faculty and are recommended by the Degree Programs Office as an appropriate code for all HKS courses. Click here to view the seven rules.

Problem Sets & Written Assignments

Problem Sets

Problems are an excellent teaching device for quantitative courses. Frequently students who think they understand concepts discover in applying them to a problem that they actually have to dig a little deeper to fully grasp the concept. Moreover, students typically start out disliking the problem sets and end up demanding more practice problems when they discover it's the best way to learn the material. Several faculty have suggested the following tips regarding the use of problem sets.

Problems as Teaching Devices

Problems are most effective as teaching devices (as contrasted with testing devices) when they're sequential. Part A gets the students started and should be within the capacity of most of the class so they don't get discouraged. Subsequent sections lead the student through the analytic process step by step. If possible, the last part should challenge the strongest students.

Using Names, Places, and Specific Goods and Services

It is useful to have the problem cast as a real world issue rather than an abstraction. Students grasp the facts provided more quickly and remember the lessons longer. Wastes dumped in the Woonsocket River, MCAT scores in Massachusetts cities and towns, magazine subscriptions purchased by the Millville Public Library, discriminatory pricing by Getaway Airlines... all the concepts used in such problems are easier to think about in concrete terms.

Length and Frequency of Assignments

Some of the faculty believe that shorter and more frequent assignments help the students stay on top of the material, not a minor consideration in a course where each class builds on the previous one. The rationale: Students are likely to wait to tackle an assignment until the night before it's due, and then find they can't finish it. Remedy: Maximize the number of nights before by breaking the assignment into smaller pieces.

Answer Sheets

Good answer sheets are absolutely essential if you want the CAs to assist in checking the homework, and a great opportunity for further teaching. For example, a concept on which the problem set focuses may have an interesting wrinkle or piece of history that you don't have time to bring up in class, but you can provide a paragraph on it in the answer sheet.

Counting or Not Counting the Problem Sets Toward the Course Grade

Many instructors believe they must count homework performance in the final grade in order to make sure the students give careful attention to it. For the instructor, the trouble with this approach is that it implies new problems (and new answer sheets) every year. Otherwise a few opportunistic souls will get their hands on last year's answer sheets and make good use of them, which is bad for their own learning and also for their more conscientious peers' sense of fair play.

There are a number of ways to handle this. Some instructors count only whether or not the homework problem sets have been turned in. Students’ grades are penalized if they do not submit some reasonable percentage of the problems. Other instructors do not count homework performance in the final grade unless the student is on the borderline of failing the course. These instructors report that this has not led to neglect of homework. What makes it work is the students' belief that they can't pass the exams if they don't really understand how to work the problems.

Questions for Practicing Explanations or "Uncle Willies"

These are not problems, they're short homework or even exam questions. Willie is the prototype "intelligent layman with no knowledge of economic or statistical jargon." A great newspaper reader, he is sometimes baffled by what he reads; the student is asked to explain it to him. "Uncle Willie has read that the income elasticity of demand for energy in a developing country may be quite different from that in an industrialized country. Explain (in one short paragraph) in terms that he will understand." These questions have become known as Uncle Willies; they are particularly relevant for the kinds of work that many of our students will eventually be doing.

Guidelines for Written Assignments

Determine Your Teaching Goals

Is your primary objective to test students’ knowledge of the course material? To challenge them to write a decision memo to a particular individual? Or an original research paper? A professional consulting report? A publishable op-ed piece on a timely topic related to the course? Obviously, each of these choices involves different criteria for evaluation. The Kennedy School Communications Program offers handouts with guidelines for each of these assignments.

Communicate Expectations

Make sure the syllabus indicates the number and general type of all written assignments. It’s fine to distribute more detailed assignment descriptions in the course of the semester, but students want to see that overview of expectations before they choose their courses.

Timing and Clarity

Allow adequate lead time, write a clear description of the assignment that answers most student questions about what is expected. This means being clear about the criteria for excellence in each case, the length, the formatting, the context if applicable, the date and place due, the penalties for late papers, etc.

Consider Offering Choices

It might be a good idea to let students choose which type of written work they would most like to tackle — e.g., a memo or an op-ed or a short research paper. In this case, you would need to suggest criteria for each format.

Offer Feedback

Try to offer feedback for each of the relevant criteria. For example, an op-ed needs to be concise, clear, and engaging. A research paper should prove an hypothesis with quantitative or qualitative data, resolve some policy question, or add to knowledge in the field. A decision memo needs to be carefully formatted, demonstrate a clear analytic framework, and support its key recommendations with relevant data. In addition to marginal comments and questions, a summary statement should try to touch upon the most important criteria.

CAs or TFs

Clarify in advance the role of CAs or TFs in advising students in the writing process and in reading the assignments. CAs should not be grading papers, but they might be able to provide useful comments and help in establishing a grade range.

Establish Reasonable Expectations for International Students

Recognize that some international students will not write in perfect English. Be clear about whether you expect them to get help perfecting their grammar—or are you willing to try to grade on the basis of the ideas beneath the less-than-perfect English? (Notify the relevant Program Directors if you find students whose English is too weak to allow them to express their ideas in a way you can understand.)

Study Groups

Study groups are a good vehicle, if properly used, for working through problem sets. Students should be urged to tackle the problem set before meeting with the study group. When they meet, they hash it out and agree on the approach and the solution.. Then before handing it in each should do it alone to ensure mastery. (If a study group in your course is having free rider problems, see Designing and Managing Collaborative Work.)

Review Sessions: Faculty Oversight

Occasionally a TF's review sessions are not up to the standard the faculty member (and the students!) expect. If so, the instructor needs to know it, and the sooner the better. Hence it's wise to check regularly with students in the class to get a sense for how the review sessions are going.

These are ticklish situations. You want to fix the problem, yet if you approach the TF who is handling the review session, you may undermine his or her confidence, which will only make matters worse. A few observations:

• If you think there's a problem, try to do something about it immediately. The sooner you face it, the easier it is on the TF.
• Make sure you're giving the TF enough guidance on what to cover, how to prepare, how to handle sticky situations, when and how to duck. ("That question is one for the professor; I'll check it out and get back to you.")
• It's usually better to ask a colleague or another qualified person to observe a review session rather than do it yourself. The colleague can then provide suggestions to the TF and to you.
• Talk with colleagues who have faced this issue; they may be able to offer good advice.

Collaborative Work

Students at the Kennedy School are often encouraged to work in groups. It is essential that the standards and parameters of the collaborative work be made clear before the work commences, and that students understand the criteria by which their individual work in the project will be assessed. To prevent disciplinary cases arising from confusion about what is and is not acceptable, instructors should direct students to the Kennedy School's Academic Code and should include in every group assignment a clear indication of acceptable levels of collaboration.

Faculty who have assigned group work in their courses are well aware of the problems that can develop with group assignments. Several faculty members have suggested ways to deal with various aspects of the problems; here are their contributions.

• Group Work Complexities (Nancy Katz): Thinking ahead about what's involved.
• Assigning Collaborative Work (Nolan Miller): Making sure that students understand what is expected of them.
• Grading Collaborative Work (multiple unidentified faculty): Setting the terms of the collaboration and getting students to sign on to them.
• Keeping Tabs on Collaboration (Jack Donahue, Anne Drazen). Encouraging anonymous peer review.

Group Work Complexities

For faculty considering introducing a team component to their course...By Associate Professor of Public Policy Nancy Katz

Introducing group work into a course inevitably means introducing complexities and problems. What makes group projects so tricky? One important factor is the students' ambivalence about individual - versus group-based rewards. On the one hand, students are here because they have a track record of stellar individual accomplishment. Furthermore, students generally believe that school, in contrast to "the real world," should be a meritocracy. On the other hand, students' ideals and espoused values tend to be egalitarian. Furthermore, students are uneasy about being directly compared with one another.

This ambivalence often gets played out as follows: students are intensely concerned about free-riding, but loathe to talk openly about it. Therefore, free-riding becomes the focus of endless "sidebar" conversations. In other words, the issue festers.

Here are a few suggestions designed to increase the odds that students have positive experiences in HKS project teams:

1. Keep the groups small (no more than 5 or 6 members if possible). As group size increases, the odds of free-riding and the costs of coordination grow dramatically.
2. When considering what percentage of the final course grade to base on group performance, keep in mind that as this percentage increases, the students' sense of having control over their fate decreases. If you want a sizable percentage of students' course grades to be based on team projects, you might want to find other ways to enhance the students' sense of control - e.g. by letting them choose the membership of their teams.
3. Students care deeply about equity: the ratio of their inputs to their outcomes. Often students define outcome as simply their grade in the course. If we can make a broader range of outcomes salient, students' perceptions of equity might be enhanced. How can we do that? By increasing the quality of the feedback, recognition, and learning that we provide.
4. It is a truism in the social psychological research literature that "procedural justice" trumps "distributive justice." In other words, peoples' perceptions of whether they have been treated fairly are influenced more by the process by which outcomes are determined than by the distribution of outcomes per se. That is, people will put up with a disadvantageous distribution of outcomes if they feel that distribution was determined via a fair process. How can we increase students' sense of procedural justice regarding team projects? (a) No surprises. If course grades will have a team component, students should know this upfront -- before they sign up for the course. (b) The process of determining team grades should be transparent. Students should be provided with plenty of information.
5. In almost any team project, "process issues" are likely to arise. Students tend to view process issues as a distraction, an obstacle to learning the "real" course material. It's our job to reframe the students' understanding of process issues. We can remind students that, when they graduate, it's likely that they'll work in a setting where team projects are prevalent. Part of the value of coming to HKS is learning how to work in a team. Process problems that arise on student teams offer students a chance to practice and refine their teamwork skills in a relatively low-risk environment. Process issues are an essential part of the "real" material.
6. It's worth examining why you are introducing a team component to your course. Often the reasons include: (a) students have fun; (b) students learn from one another; (c) it changes the tempo of the course; (d) there are fewer papers for the instructor to grade. These can be good reasons, but they aren't sufficient to justify introducing a team project. The essential reason for creating a team should be that the task requires a team. In other words, the task requires the integration of diverse, distributed expertise. There's no surer route to frustration than assigning students to teams, and then giving them a task that doesn't truly require a team. An unhappy, dysfunctional team is the almost guaranteed result. You might need to reconfigure the team task so that it truly requires the integration of diverse, distributed expertise. Consider whether the task can be redesigned so that every team member - even the person with no background in the substantive area, or the person whose English is relatively weak- can add value and his/her seeming handicap is in fact an asset to the team.

Assigning Collaborative Work

By Associate Professor of Public Policy Nolan Miller

When assigning collaborative work, it is essential that the assignment be made clear beyond the shadow of a doubt. As many of us have discovered, that’s easier said than done. Associate Professor Nolan Miller has suggested the following approach.
Individual instructors may find it useful to develop a similar system for their own course.

1. Establish a list of standard types of collaborative assignments. See below for a list of possible standard types.
2. Inform students that they are absolutely accountable for understanding what the standard types and standard citation requirements are.
3. Label each collaborative assignment (e.g., “This is a Type II assignment).

Standard Types of Collaborative Assignments

Type I. Work alone and write up alone. Do not consult anyone beside the instructor and course assistants/teaching fellow in the preparation of the assignment. Your assignment should be handwritten by you (if allowed) or typed by you.

Type II. Work with others, write up alone. You may freely consult other students. However, the write-up you submit must be your own. That means that it should either be hand written by you (if acceptable) or type-written on a computer, where you yourself have done the typing. Examples of assignments that are not acceptable include (but are not limited to): photocopies of substantially identical assignments, printouts of substantially identical computer files, copies of assignments submitted in previous years, or solutions sets distributed in previous years. (You may if you wish require that students list other students who have been consulted in preparing their individual solutions)

Types III and IV are the group analogs to types I and II:

Type III. Work in a group, write up in a group, no consultation outside of the group. Submit a single assignment with the names of all group members on it. Each group should produce its own assignment, and the same rules apply to the group assignments as did to the individual write-ups in Type II: each group must produce an original write up, copies or multiple printouts are not allowed. Group members may not consult anyone not in the group except the course staff.

Type IV. Work in a group, write up in a group, consultation outside the group is allowed. Submit a single assignment with the names of all group members on it. You may consult other students, but the group is responsible for producing its own write-up. Copies (either handwritten, photocopies, or multiple computer printouts) of materials prepared by other groups (or in previous years) are not allowed.

Grading Collaborative Work

It is crucial that the standards and parameters of the collaborative work be made clear before the work commences, and that students understand the criteria by which their individual work in the project will be assessed. Instructors should therefore provide students with a clear written description of (a) how they are expected to carry out the work, and (b) the basis on which grades will be assigned to the individual students in the collaborating group. Faculty who have had experience with group work suggest that students be asked to sign a statement promising that (1) each will contribute substantially to the project, and (2) each will accept as his or her individual grade the grade assigned to the project as a whole.

The Kennedy School's Academic Code provides good advice on encouraging and assigning collaborative work. This advice applies equally well when students are encouraged to work in study groups. The most common problem in both situations is the perception of freeloading.

See Managing Collaborative Work for suggestions from faculty who have coped with this problem. In addition, IT has developed a useful online peer evaluation tool for addressing the freeloading issue.

See Keeping Tabs on Collaboration; instructors who have used it are recommend it highly.

Keeping Tabs on Collaboration

By John D. Donahue, Raymond Vernon Lecturer in Public Policy, and Anne Drazen, Senior Associate Dean for Curriculum Development and Support

Faculty who assign group work have always been concerned about free riders on the one hand and stars who go unnoticed on the other. In the past, instructors relied on informal information from students and CAs; it clearly wasn't enough. Instructors would get news of egregious failures of one sort or another -- often months after the fact when it was too late to do anything about it. Finally one instructor turned to ITS to see whether they could come up with a system of peer assessment that is simple, reliable, fair, and secure. This is the tool ITS came up with:

1. The instructor gives Information Services a roster of student teams.
2. Information Services gives the instructor a URL to distribute to students.
3. The students click on and get a list of their team mates names (not including their own).
4. The student can then rate any or all of their teammates on a 5-point scale, with descriptors chosen by the instructor.
5. Once a student has submitted these rankings, he or she may not log on again.
6. No record is kept of who does and who does not use the system, which preserves its confidentiality.
7. The instructor (and only the instructor) may download an Excel file with the results.

Faculty who have used this system for Spring Exercise say that it really worked. It is available for any HKS course.

Class Participation

If class participation will count as part of a student's grade, instructors must clearly state that this is the case in the syllabus and at the first several class meetings. Moreover, students will naturally want to know more that just whether it will count or not: How much will it count? What are the instructor's criteria for judging participation? Do the criteria unintentionally encourage students to talk more and think less?

Differences in Student Backgrounds

Instructors should recognize that students from differing educational systems and backgrounds may not be accustomed to speaking up in class; class participation at the Kennedy School will be a new experience for them. Instructors should be particularly aware of the issues which international students may face in this academic environment. Many international students are studying and learning in a language that is not their first language. Some come from educational systems where students are expected to listen, with rote learning playing a larger role. Some find it hard to participate in class discussions because they perceive that there is no opportunity or "space" to contribute anything meaningful based on their own experiences in another country, especially when the discussion focuses on American/European/Western issues. Because of these dynamics some international students may feel hindered from talking about issues that are meaningful to them.

Political Bias

Other students may feel pressure not to speak if they feel that their point of view is not "politically correct," or in the political minority. Particularly in a school of government it is important that all students feel their views have equal weight and that open discussion is not stifled by political bias of the faculty or the other students in the class.

Gender Differences

Although less so than in the past (especially now that the Kennedy school student body is close to 50% women), women students may also be hesitant about participating in class discussion. It is especially difficult for those from countries where women are not encouraged to speak up.

Using Course Assistants and Teaching Fellows to Monitor Class Participation

In those instances where participation is part of the grade for the course the CA or TF should keep a log of who is and is not participating. CAs and TFs can also extend the instructor's perception of what is happening in the classroom by serving as another set of eyes and ears in the room. They can gather useful information about the students’ experience by paying attention to their reactions. They can call attention to any unwitting favoritism the instructor may have toward one side of the room or another, or note if some students who raise their hands are not being called upon.

Cold Calling

Opinions about cold calling vary; with most HKS courses it is appropriate and productive, and viewed by some as not used enough. Students (most of whom are very hardworking) tend to be supportive of it, for it forces their less diligent colleagues to prepare for class. Faculty recognize it as an important element of professional training; those who are students today will be professionals tomorrow, confronting situations where they have to think quickly. At the same time, instructors are understandably reluctant to face the risk of embarrassing a student by exposing ignorance or lack of preparation. Cold calling can be difficult for international students for whom English is a second language.

Quantitative courses present a rather different problem, mainly because the students in those courses (especially in the introductory courses) vary widely in their previous exposure to the material. Universal cold calling can be risky, for it may produce an answer that's just plain wrong and must be corrected immediately. (Even immediately may be too late for those who are so busy writing down the wrong answer they don't hear the correction.) Hence the cold caller must avoid questions that may lead to more confusion rather than less.

Some faculty have found it useful to inform selected students at the very start of class that they will be called upon at some point in that day’s session. Others regularly introduced a class with a statement that in about five minutes they will call on a named student to present a brief summary of the case to be discussed in that day's class. Thus students are given time to prepare themselves. Still other faculty let students know at the conclusion of a class that they will be called upon to comment at the next class meeting.

Students who Monopolize "Airtime"

Faculty should make every effort not to call on the same students time after time, even if those students’ hands are the first to shoot up. It is important to give all students the sense that they have equal air time.

Tricks of the Trade (Small Class Division)

One faculty member allows students to speak a second time only after every student has spoken at least once.

Feedback on Students’ Work

Feedback on Assignments

Teaching is most successful when it is accompanied by ample feedback to students on their progress; grades alone on assignments or midterms are not enough. Instructors are expected to provide timely feedback to students, with commentary on students' written, oral, and classroom work; they should instruct their CAs and TFs to do likewise. In designing a course, the instructor should consider providing opportunities for students to submit written work or problem sets. While the main purpose is to give them the opportunity to respond to criticism and improve their work, it also allows the instructor to calculate the final grade on a broader basis than one or two exams or a term paper. Year after year, student surveys indicate that it is almost impossible to overstate the importance of thoughtful comments and quick turnaround, or the resentment of students whose assignments were returned after the exam rather than before it.

Keep the Feedback Constructive

Students can be sensitive to the tone in which feedback, whether oral or written, is delivered; they are likely to learn more if it doesn't get under their skin. In particular, instructors and CAs/TFs should use a blue or green or purple pencil, anything rather than red. (Nitpicking? No; there's ample evidence that red pencils are counterproductive).

Feedback on Exams

If an instructor gives a less than perfect score on a question (e.g., 13/15), it pays to write a few words to explain why. That takes more time when grading, but less than one might think. The trick is to find just a couple of words to identify common errors -- which is one reason why it's usually more efficient to grade all the answers to one question before starting on another. Moreover, even a brief comment saves time later on, for it eliminates many student concerns about the way the exam was graded, while with those who still complain you don’t have to reread the exam to see why you took points off.

Diversity

Handling Sensitive Issues in the Classroom

One of our greatest opportunities and challenges in teaching involves dealing with pluralism in our classes. The most important issues arise around race, gender, and increasingly sexual orientation. ... We need to be far more effective in our work in this arena if we are going to get the maximal benefit from the diversity of our students. ... I would also like to call your attention to a different set of pluralism issues -- the treatment of different philosophical views in the classroom. I have heard from a number of conservative students that they find many classrooms to be unwelcoming of divergent views. Excellence requires that we find ways to understand and incorporate issues and experiences of those who have faced discrimination and powerlessness as well as to find ways to encourage the voices of those who are underrepresented here at the school.

-- Dean David Ellwood, 30 September 2004

Below are some materials on the subject of handling sensitive issues is the classroom.

Suggestions for Making Harvard Kennedy School More Inclusive

These suggestions were drafted by Prof. Jane Mansbridge; they grew out of the work of a joint student/faculty that several years ago looked at issues of diversity in the classroom.

1. Distribute "Tips" each year to faculty at the beginning of the year. Attach each year on the first page of the tips a list of anonymous incidents that happened at HKS the year before. Make available the BriggsGentile document.
2. Have a session in orientation period that is student-led discussing these issues. Distribute the Briggs document to the whole class, but have the in-depth discussion be by cohort. In addition to the Briggs document, have a paragraph saying that the faculty will be trying, but these issues are not easy. It would help if the whole class engaged in the process of creating a respectful deliberative space. The faculty as well as the students need some margin for trial and error. They are jointly responsible, "co-producers" of effective discussions.
3. Publicize Joe McCarthy and a designated second year student as ombudspeople on issues of classroom inclusion. Forward to Dean McCarthy, Littauer 125, HKS incidents which need attention, directing in one of two directions:
   1. situation needs action: please call/email me to discuss.
   2. situation can serve as an example: please describe incident anonymously to next year's faculty (see suggestion #1)
4. Create a training program for new faculty and Core faculty, to help with inclusion issues.
5. Give double points to faculty for teaching classes that explicitly focus on gender, race and other diversity concerns. (As it stands, faculty members avoid teaching these classes after giving them once or twice because they tend to have small enrollments).
6. Hire a specially trained "teaching coach," who can not only help faculty with their teaching but can also specialize in inclusion issues.
7. Create teaching notes for the most used cases at HKS. The notes should be sensitive to diversity issues, and, when relevant, make suggestions on different ways of treating those issues with concern for the range of sensitivities within the student body. Some of these notes might be created by the teaching coach. In addition, give faculty points or other incentives for creating teaching notes for classes that others will teach. Ask those teaching notes to include diversity issues when appropriate. Particularly on cases for the Core curricula, consult students and other faculty about ways to handle diversity issues in creating teaching notes. A good teaching note would get down to nuts and bolts -- what to put on the board, possible land mines, etc. Notes would take into account the issues that tend to be ignored and that are hard to teach.
8. Move up inclusiveness in the ordering of the year-end evaluation, and include inclusiveness issues in midcourse evaluations.
9. Create a "diversity issues fund" to be used to hire research assistants for faculty who want to create teaching notes, write up cases or develop curricula that incorporate diverse perspectives.

Making Classroom Discussion More Inclusive: Tips for HKS Faculty

These tips derive from three sources: (1) Xavier de Sousa Briggs and Mary C. Gentile, "Things We've Learned So Far: A Note on Teaching and Learning `Diversity' Issues," Kennedy School teaching note, copyright 1997; (2) a discussion of about twenty faculty members in the spring semester, 2000; (3) student recommendations in the spring of 2000.

Preparing for Class

• Try to find cases with diverse protagonists in diverse settings that bring up issues relating to different perspectives.
  The Case Program has lists of the cases that deal with a variety of subjects, including gender and ethnicity, and international subjects. The lists give abstracts of the cases. Ask if the Case Program has teaching notes for any of the cases you are using.
• In preparing the classes, ask if any study questions relating to diversity would be appropriate.
• Divide the class into study groups that will meet before each class to prepare the assignment collectively. Randomly call on the study groups to give presentations in class, e.g. at the beginning to analyze the case, and at the end to derive lessons learned.
• Engineer the study groups so that students for whom English is not a native language are distributed proportionally. Tell native English speakers that they are under an affirmative obligation to help non-native English speakers with the assignments.

Getting Started

• Prepare students to come prepared to be involved and to collaborate. Use the image of a "barn-raising." Set expectations of inclusiveness. Emphasize that this is a learning community. Students who are normally quiet have an obligation to participate; students who normally participate have an obligation to encourage those who normally participate less. Similarly with preparedness: if anyone has not prepared, the whole class may suffer because that person may have had a cutting insight to add. Raise the consciousness of the class about what it means to teach to a diverse group. A 22 and a 32 year old woman will have had a different experience. It is a multiple-constituency classroom.
• Establish ground rules for effective conversations that include diverse participants and controversial viewpoints.
• Cold calls. Explain that these are not intended to be punitive. Students themselves have asked for them to help avoid the "free rider problem" of some coasting by on the work of others.

In the Classroom

• Learn through teaching notes and other faculty how not to avoid the issues that are salient for minorities, women, gays and lesbians, born-again Christians, students from other cultures, and other groups who are likely to feel that the reigning culture at HKS is not on their wavelength. For example:
• Make quality of discourse in the classroom or study group itself a topic of conversation. (“What things are we not talking about? When do you find yourself backing out of the conversation? Were there any turning points in today’s conversation?”), so that faculty and students alike become more aware of their assumptions, styles of thinking and styles of talking together.
• Set up provocative “straw man” views that are going unstated in the class but are influential in the world (asking a group or class, e.g., “What do you say to the person who argues...?”).
• Do role playing, including “reversals” (asking students to argue the opposing view or to affirm the importance - not to say the rightness - of a view that a class wants to ignore or squelch. “This feels important, let’s stick with this for a moment.”)
• Ask course assistants to track discussion process (e.g., how many mid-careers - or women or people of color - spoke today?)
• Engage students in evaluating their own class participation, perhaps halfway through a course and perhaps as part of the midcourse evaluation.
• When issues come up in class that raise angers and anxieties, consider suspending the agenda to process what people are feeling. (Recognize, though, that much of this will irritate those who want to concentrate on the analytic topic. Therefore, try to keep the digression to below, say, seven minutes, expanding it only when the issue is (a) relevant to the course; (b) likely not to appear again; (c) raised by someone you want to draw out (as opposed to someone the class has heard from often). If you have prepared the class with thoughtful "what-we-are-here-to-do" messages early in the course, then you can explain quickly to the class at the moment of digression why this is part of the learning too. One possibility is to say something like: "There is a rule in my business: ABC. `Affect Before Content.' You seem to feel really strongly about this; you were really upset. Help us to understand why." Or "Let's have a dialogue here and not a polarized debate. What are one or two good questions we could pose to gain some insight on this issue?" It may help to ask the two or three students whose expressed views are most divergent to help everyone with the process. Or use "SWOT" analysis: ask what were the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in the recent discussion. The point is that we are trying to develop take-away skills.
• Let the students know that your goal is to protect students from attack by their peers in class discussions.
• Help students speak from the "I" voice when appropriate, and avoid sweeping generalizations.
• Help students recognize and resist various reasoning pitfalls, such as defensive reasoning, dichotomous thinking, inappropriate generalization, group think, and reliance on undefined concepts.
• Be aware of how you may favor certain groups. E.g., some individuals speed the class along analytically; but others can help flesh out the meaning of an issue through personal experience.

The Silent Students

• Meet privately with more silent students to prod participation. Let those who have most trouble choose an issue a class ahead and tell them you will call on them at that time. Or email those who often do not speak and say you will ask them to speak on an upcoming topic from their own experience.
• Periodically in class, ask for comments "from folks who have not been in the discussion so far." Or turn to less frequent participators and ask, "What do you think, x?"
• Prepare the shyer students: "In a couple of minutes I will ask X to present the major points..."
• Tell students who often don't speak to read the case, answer the study questions, and be the first hand up. Point out that then they will feel less anxiety during the rest of the class.
• If the students themselves identify a group characteristic as relevant to their low participation, ask if they would like to meet together with other members of that group in your class to discuss issues of participation. Ask if there are particular perspectives not covered in the course that they could help add to the course. But avoid making assumptions or asking leading questions.
• When you notice a perspective in a paper that has not been brought out in class, say something in your comment or to the student in person about how everyone would benefit from that perspective being in the class.
• Experiment with a day in which each student can only speak once.

We strongly recommend reading Things We've Learned So Far: A Note on Teaching and Learning "Diversity" Issues by Xavier Briggs and Mary Gentile.

In addition, the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning publishes documents, books, and videos on teaching, including Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom, by Lee Warren and Women and Men in the Classroom: Inequality and Its Remedies by Catherine G. Krupnick.

Using Technology in the Classroom

There is a wealth of material on the Internet for teachers who wish to make use of various types of technology in the classroom.

Visit Studio KSG, the Kennedy's School's Media Services department, Studio KSG to obtain media availability for each classroom if you plan to utilize audio-visual technology in your class or program.

Taping Your Class

To reserve a camera, fill out the Media Request Form at least 3 days before you need it. The Media Request Form must be submitted for each session, unless this request will be standard for the same class for part or all of a semester. In that case, use the Repeating Schedule Request Form.

StudioKSG provides the video camera and will also provide a technician, if requested, for the taping. There is a charge for the technician for a standard 1.5 hour class. Alternatively, they will train a CA or TF to do the taping. There is no charge if you provide the tape and a CA or TF does the work. To reserve a camera, fill out the Media Request Form at least 3 days before you need it. The Media Request Form must be submitted for each session, unless this request will be standard for the same class for part or all of a semester. In that case, use the Repeating Schedule Request Form.

Streaming Video/ Podcasts

Once the class has been taped, StudioKSG will provide the faculty member with a URL, which can then be placed on the Coure Page website. There is no cost to have your class on our server for the whole semester. Video’s are automatically deleted by Studio KSG at the end of the semester. StudioKSG also has the capability to podcast videos.

Document Camera

The document camera enables the faculty member to project an image without using the trandtional overhead transparencies. A book, three dimensional object, diagrams or notes you write as the class is in process (which you might otherwise write on the blackboard) may be projected. Reserve the document camera at StudioKSG.

Audio Response System/Classroom Polling

Individual “clickers” for each student in your class for polling students during class and immediately projectingresults. Studio KSG provices the clickers.

Audio Conferencing/Video Conferencing

Eachclassroom is equipped for both audio andvideo conferencing. Contact Studio KSG to make arrrangements

Field Trips and Classroom Visitors

Field Trips

Occasionally faculty want to take their class on a site visit. The school does not officially sponsor field trips, nor does it provide funding, transportation, or insurance for offsite trips. Usually faculty make the arrangements themselves and the costs of transportation are borne by the students. If the trip is to an area where students could be at risk, faculty should require each participating student to sign an appropriate release form. For further information about release forms, please contact the Registrar.

Classroom Visitors

While inviting visitors to speak to a class is not discouraged, faculty should be careful not to have so many visitors that the students' exposure to the primary faculty member is diminished. This holds especially for practitioners who hold teaching appointments at the Kennedy School. Students typically take a course offered by a practitioner with the expectation that his or her experiences and reflections will be the core of the course.

Although the School does not pay honoraria for guest speakers in classes, faculty may apply for funds to offset up to 2/3 of reasonable travel expenses for the guest speaker. Ordinarily the 2/3 share covered by the Office of Teaching Support does not exceed $500 per visitor or $1000 per course. Courses with small enrollments may be funded less frequently than those with larger enrollments. To apply for funds, email the Assistant Dean for Teaching Support in advance of the visit, indicating the course, the speaker, the date, and the expected costs. If approved, the faculty member's staff assistant processes the required paper work.

Help for Students with Problems

Help for Students with Academic Problems

If faculty find they have students who are experiencing more than the average amount of academic difficulty they should immediately contact the student's Program Director. The Program Directors are familiar with a variety of sources of assistance at the school and in the university that can help students improve their study skills. Moreover, it is the Program Directors who will know if a student is having trouble in more than one course and who will therefore be in a better position to address the problem.

Help for Students with Personal Problems

As is true of all students in graduate school, those at the Harvard Kennedy School can be under considerable pressures which may affect their performance in class. Many situations can contribute to a student’s overall stress level, ranging from worries about academic progress, family pressures (especially if they have young children), and financial pressures, to the stress of studying in a language that is not their primary language. If any member of the Kennedy School community is concerned about a student, he or she should convey the concerns to the Senior Associate Dean, Joseph McCarthy, the Registrar, or the student's program director. Even if unsure that there is a problem, one should not hesitate to inform one of these individuals, for others may have expressed concern about the same student. If the student’s program is not known, call anyone on the Program Directors list.

Click here for further information on identifying the warning signs of students in distress.