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Framing the conversation

How you frame the conversation – to your students, but also for yourself! – can significantly impact its direction and tenor. For this reason, we recommend centering the shared concern of your students’ learning experience, or learning in your discipline more generally, in the discussion. 

Tips for framing the conversation around student learning

You may wish to consider some of the tips below to keep the focus of the conversation on mutual care for student learning as you are preparing to facilitate the discussion: 

Do:

  • Plan for the conversation: Outline the questions you intend to ask students, strategies if students are reluctant to engage, or if the conversation gets heated, and anything else that will help support the conversation. 
  • Set the tone: Open the conversation by sharing your intentions with students and try to create a supportive climate by acknowledging the diverse range of perspectives students might have and your willingness to hear them non-judgmentally.  
  • Encourage questions and reflections from students: Try to approach the conversation with genuine curiosity to learn more about your students’ experiences. 
  • Empathize with students: Students may express views that you do not agree with but search for points of commonality that you can draw upon. At the very least, we are all navigating an uncertain present and future together, and it may be helpful to remember that students may be feeling confused, worried, and overwhelmed as well. 
  • Manage student expectations: Share your goals and framing with students to ensure everyone has the same understanding of the point of the conversation.  
  • Model critical thinking, openness, humility, and reflection: Having a conversation about GenAI and learning with students is an opportunity to demonstrate the nuanced thinking we wish to encourage. Also, if you use GenAI in your teaching practice, adhere to the same standards of disclosure you ask of students. 
  • Prepare to take on a facilitative role: You may have extensive experience with facilitating conversations from your teaching and are already comfortable with the approach. If you are newer to the role of a facilitator, our editable conversation template has some language you might find helpful in encouraging participation, paraphrasing to ensure understanding, managing the direction of the conversation, and reflecting back what you have heard.   

Avoid:

  • Dismissing opinions at odds with your own: Power dynamics within a classroom can make expressing your opinion challenging, and strong viewpoints or blanket statements can flatten or shut down conversation. Inviting students to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings can instead help foster a nuanced discussion. This is not to say that you cannot articulate your stance, but it’s important to be aware of how your opinions or tone may be interpreted, or impact students’ willingness to share. 
  • Focusing solely on Academic Integrity: Keeping the conversation centered on student learning, rather than academic integrity, can allow for a more productive dialogue, help to diffuse potential tensions, and encourage trust. 
  • Making assumptions about students’ use of GenAI: It is normal to have your own experiences, thoughts, and feelings about students’ uses of GenAI, but it’s important to not let past experiences overly influence future conversation. Going into a discussion with a listening mindset, rather than assumptions, can help students feel heard and more comfortable sharing.   
  • Expecting a neat conclusion to the conversation: Though goals can help structure a dialogue, remember that your conversation with students may not go as expected, and there may not be a clear conclusion. Instead, keep in mind that the point is the process of dialogue rather than the end result.  
  • Ignoring GenAI altogether: With GenAI greatly impacting the landscape of education, not having a conversation with your students can lead to confusion and even animosity. Giving students the opportunity to express their feelings can go a long way in building trust.  

Note: Having a conversation about GenAI with your students does not obligate you to change your course policies – or your mind – about GenAI, but we encourage you to be open to adapting as you learn from the conversation.