The Value of Academic Discourse

Conversations That Matter

Edited by Twyla Miranda, Jeffrey Herr

Publication date:

22 November 2017

Length of book:

220 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781475838459

How important is academic discourse that promotes new understandings and allows us to question what we know? In the current age of instant-messaging and Twitter®, does academic conversation have a place? Frankly, we think that academic discourse is more important now than ever.
Our civil society functions best when students, instructors, neighbors, and communities come together to question the information before us, so that decisions and directions are viable, helpful, and ethical. Academic conversations help us sort through the important and not-so-important themes of our lives and how we are to live. Academic conversations show us other ways of viewing, and they grow our own repertoire of ideas. Academic conversations teach us wonder, tolerance, humility, and the important fact that the world is bigger than our backyard.
Understanding the art and pragmatism of academic conversations requires a building of trust, a willingness to share, and a mind for critical thinking. Guidance for holding conversations with meaning and doing philosophy with learners is modeled, as well as how implementing classroom and collegial discourse benefits our society.
This book is a panoramic consideration of how dialogue enhances teaching and learning. The editors have selected a broad range of contributors whose thoughtful reports reveal historical and practical dimensions of dialogic pedagogy. Teachers will benefit from a careful reading of this volume.