Paideia Seminars

The National Paideia Center promotes and supports the efforts of educators who are implementing the long-term systemic school reform of known as the Paideia Program ("paideia" is from the Greek paidos: the upbringing of a child) through networks, staff development, a newsletter and other publications. In 1982 a group of scholars and educators, headed by Mortimer Adler, published The Paideia Proposal, which stated that a truly democratic society has a responsibility both to provide a high quality education and to provide this education to all of its members. They concluded that our current public schools are accomplishing neither goal consistently and proposed a framework called the Paideia Program, outlined in this book and two subsequent ones.

The goal of the Paideia Program is to provide a rigorous, liberal arts education in grades k-12 which will allow all graduates to have the skills necessary to earn a living, to think and act critically as responsible citizens, and to continue educating themselves as life-long learners. The Program supports block scheduling, integration of learning styles, cooperative learning, and interdisciplinary unit planning. Although primarily, the Program promotes the following teaching techniques to ensure both educational quality and equality. The Paideia Program advocates three modes of teaching:

The didactic mode is the acquisition of organized knowledge through means such as textbooks, lectures, and videos. John Goodlad has estimated that roughly 85% of our classroom instruction time in the U.S. is currently spent this way. While necessary, this portion of learning should be more interactive and should monopolize much less of the school day.

The coaching aspect of the program is the way students actively gain the intellectual skills which are necessary for further learning. Coaching is the core of the Paideia Program and requires practice, mastery, and learning by doing. The amount of time given to this activity should be greatly expanded, and a wide array of methods and approaches should be used in the classroom (e.g. labs, cooperative learning techniques, project-centered/product-oriented learning).

The seminar component is a way for students to deepen their understanding of the ideas they have been studying, and apply them to their own lives and values. Seminars should be used as a regular instructional method in all grades, K-12. The seminar process, with the teacher facilitating an open exploration of the ideas in a work, has the greatest capacity to transform the nature of school for students and teachers because:

1. A bond of mutual respect is created, both peer to peer and  teacher to student;

2. Each student must think critically to understand ideas, solve problems, make decisions, resolve conflicts, and apply knowledge and skills to new situations;  articulation, listening, and critical thinking skills are improved. For these reasons, the seminar is usually the method first introduced to schools. Students and teachers find that skills in seminar transfers to their other subjects, improving attitudes and motivation.

(National Paideia Center)

1. Seminar Rules

1. All participants must read the selection.
2. Discussion is restricted to the selection that everyone has read.
3. All opinions should be supportable with evidence from the selection.
4. Leaders may only ask questions; they may not answer them.
5. Leaders encourage interpretations supported by text without putting an evaluation on interpretations.
6. Seating arrangement allows all participants to face each other.

2. How to Lead a Seminar

1. Become very familiar with the text; several reading are required.
2. Prepare questions to open the seminar, examine heart of the text.  These questions should be genuine problems of meaning...those that you still find puzzling after two readings and that you can interpret in more than one way based on the text.  Limit the number of questions.  The goal is to have a greater understanding of the text by thinking and examining one another's responses--not covering the content.
3. Arrange the interpretive questions into groups that seem to be related to the same problem of meaning.
4. Plan beginning and ending seminar activities.  It is often effective to begin the seminar with a written question that everyone responds to.  Another idea is to have everyone vote on the issue raised by the text.

3. Possible opening questions
        1.  What do you think this text is saying?
        2.  What is another title you would have given this piece?
        3.  If you had been asked for advice by ___, what would you have said?

4. Possible closing questions
        1.  After discussing the text, would you still give the same advice as you did in your opening
            statement?  Defend your answer.
        2.  Do you understand the reading better?  How?
        3.  What relevance does the text have today?

5.  A Discussion Leader Should
        a.  listen carefully in order to rephrase ideas to make them clear to all participants.
        b.  make sure all questions are fully understood
        c.  insist that participants answer the question, not just say whatever is in their minds
        d.  let students know that they must be ready to change their minds as a result of discussion         e.  direct the group back to the question at hand when conversation wanders
        f.  follow up students' responses with probing questions which ask them to clarify or justify their statement
        g.  call on all students, balancing the participation among the group.

6.  The Students Should
        a.  refer to the text to support their points
        b.  ask good questions
        c.  change their minds
        d. back up their statement with examples and reason
        e.  refer to comments made by other students

7.  Tactics That Encourage Active Learning
        a.  Summarize or put into their own words what the teacher or another student has said
        b.  Elaborate on what they have said
        c.  Relate the issue to their own knowledge and experience
        d.  Give examples to clarity or support what they have said.
        e.  Make connections between related concepts
        f.  Restate the instructions or assignment in their own words
        g.  State the question  at issue
        h.  Describe to what extent their point of view on the issue ifs different from or similar to the point
i.  Take a few minutes to write down any of the above.

8.  Ending the Discussion

Ideally a resolution will be reached.  This occurs when most of the participants feel reasonably satisfied with one of the answers to the basic question.  Clues that a resolution has been reached may be that the discussion no longer seemed productive, participants begin to repeat themselves or digress because they have nothing else to say.

9.  Strategies for Ending a Discussion
        a.  Repeat the basic question
        b.  Ask members to give convincing answers they remember hearing
        c.  Call on people who did not participate (Which response seemed more reasonable to you?)
        d.  Ask if anyone completely changed his interpretations of the story.
        e.  Have them return to their written response from the beginning and reflect on any change.

Possible Rubric

4--The student was well prepared for the seminar and displayed a thorough knowledge of the text by offering specific details to support his/her opinion.  The student actively participated in the seminar by thoughtfully listening to the opinions of others and building on those ideas.  The student raised relevant question and redirected the conversation as needed.  The student respects others' opinions and wan not argumentative in his/her demeanor.

3--The student was somewhat prepared for the seminar and displayed a limited knowledge of the text .  A few opinions were supported by specific details from the text.  The student listened to the opinions of others, but did not offer any further comments in support or disagreement. The student respected others' opinions and was not argumentative in his/her demeanor.

2--The student was unprepared for the seminar and had not completed the reading of the text. Limited opinions were expressed, but none were supported by actual references to the text.

1--The student was unprepared for the seminar and had not completed the reading of the text.  The student did not participate in the discussion.

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Inner/Outer Circle Assessment

Has been called Fishbowl.  Half of the students are seated in an inner circle and half surround them in an outer circle.  The outer circle's responsibility is to score the inner circle's participation.  The following point system can be used.

+1 point per comment
+2 points for adding to the ideas of others
+2 points for refocusing/redirecting the discussion
-2 points for negative comment personal in nature.