Facilitation and Dialogue as Methods of Reflective Practice in Professional Education

Students may fear sharing their learning in public because classrooms are not traditional places where we teach skills needed for mutual understanding, such as facilitation and dialogue. This is a pedagogical challenge for planning, policy, and design fields because contemporary teaching requires collaboration among participants. We propose that learning to work collaboratively in the classroom has broader relevance for practice because it mirrors the learning that happens in organizations. To address this opportunity, we trained students in facilitation and dialogue. In this article, we discuss the design, implementation, and outcomes of this intervention.