A typical CD session

The central aim of CD is to set aside some time, preferably on a regular basis, in which the rules of engagement are consciously changed. By doing this you can:

• talk your way into better understandings
• hothouse an idea
• develop a research proposal
• get further with a course design
• articulate a possible change to teaching methodology
• make space for an internal dialogue

It may help to divide a session into three phases:

Speaker Stage

The Speaker brings to the CD session a topic of interest, a focus or a puzzle on which he or she wants to work. This might be quite a vague or half-formed idea. On the other hand the Speaker might be ironing out the details of something more well-formed.

The Speaker articulates his or her thoughts. The Understanders support the Speaker by maintaining a non-evaluative role. The Understands can use CD 'moves' described below. The Understanders can also ask questions in order to clarify the Speaker's ideas. However, these are best kept to a minimum and need to be kept non-evaluative.

Resonance Stage

The Understanders can use this space to download ideas that have struck them while listening. These should not comment directly on Speaker's thoughts or ideas. It is important that they do not reflect evaluatively on what the Speaker has said.

Summary Stage

The Speaker reflects on the statements made by Understanders. The Speaker may make further comment on these perspectives and also summarises outcomes, developments and next steps articulated in the session. There may be a few closing comments on the session as a whole. Typically, the Speaker says things like:

• 'What I'm thinking/feeling now is...'
• 'What I found helpful today was...'
• 'I think I can see now that...'
• 'What I can do now is...'