2016 Annual Conference

Increasingly multicultural classrooms and workplaces create growing needs for democratic learning environments. Instructors may move towards achieving democracy in higher education and organizational classrooms by using teaching activities that support student voice development. A learning activity will be discussed as one means to help achieve democracy in various educational contexts.

This session is relevant to adult educators at institutions of higher or continuing education. This session will also be helpful to individuals seeking different practices and approaches to create more inclusive and democratic learning environment. Also this session could be of interest to administrators and practitioners in organizational development and learning. This also would be interesting for ABE or ELL classrooms.

In an effort to create a more democratic classroom, it is valuable to engage students as extensively as possible in the learning process. Frequently teachers resort to discussion as an engagement tool but discussions are not necessarily inclusive of all student voices and experiences and can undermine a democratic classroom. The impact of not including all voices in the classroom can affect student learning and participation in the classroom.
“Traveling Expert” is an innovative learning activity applicable in a variety of different learning environments. This activity combines movement, shared leadership and a fostering of self-directed learning that is useful in both traditional university classroom settings as well as in employee development settings. It provides learners the opportunity to critically think and develop their own voice about a content area. This activity is also a useful tool in helping students consider and tolerate opposing viewpoints. This discussion is timely with the increasingly multicultural learning environment and the expectation of educational institutions and employers for people to effectively learn new things as well as effectively work together.