3.1 Strategies for Hot Button Moments - Part 1

Transforming challenging hot button moments into rich and productive learning moments can be done using a number of different strategies. The key is finding which one will work best for your particular context.

Below are suggestions for addressing hot button moments in the classroom and in particular, how to facilitate classroom discussions around potentially difficult issues.

• Take a moment count to ten before speaking or reacting.
• Understand your own positionality in relation to the issue.
• Decide you will come back to it in the moment; mark it as something the class will come back to at the next meeting.
• Revisit or establish discussion guidelines.
• Invite students to move around the room, write or sketch quietly, or take a few deep breaths, just to change the energy in the room before diving back in.
• Find a way to connect the hot moment to course topics or learning goals.
• When appropriate seek to clarify and name students comments that have sparked tension.
• Try to depersonalize positions of disagreement that have emerged in the learning environment.
• Teach students the skills they need to participate in difficult conversations.
• Identify University Resources.
• When there has been a hot button moment – encourage self-reflection at the end of class. Give people a chance to decompress.
• Consider connecting with trusted colleagues or friends.

Adapted from: Making the Most of “Hot Moments” in the Classroom Links to an external site. by University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) and Navigating Hot-Button Campus Issues in the Classroom Links to an external site. by Tufts University.