On a TV screen, Wilkinson and Warren showed a video of a journalism class discussing gender in reporting. The class reviewed differences in the ways that males and females wrote, and the men in the section began putting down the females and disrupting the class. Wilkinson and Warren then talked about how to handle such a section.
The video session fell flat. It was "disappointing because it was unfocused," said Mark K. Burns, teaching fellow in literature.
"It was more of a critique of the video, rather than presenting new information," Burns said. "It didn't have the same specific pragmatic focus as other sessions."
In contrast, a roundtable discussion of "Getting Students to Do the Work" offered "lots of good ideas and suggestions about how to motivate the students," Burns said.
The best part about yesterday's training, teaching fellows said, was that they had to be students and teachers.
"The sessions were beneficial, because they moved down to the students level," Girash said, "and then back up to the teachers' level."