The first ten minutes of class were spent on the students sharing their thoughts on the two research articles assigned as reading for the week. Were the papers interesting? Were they difficult to read? How strong were the experimental designs and conclusions?
The remainder of the time was spent discussing the papers in detail, one at a time. One student would give an overall summary of the article. Each figure would then be presented by a student, who would describe the methodology used, the findings, and the strengths and weaknesses of the conclusions.
Open discussion was encouraged amongst the students. The instructors intentionally remained outside the discussions. Occasionally if a major point of the paper was missed or misunderstood, or glaring weaknesses or strengths were not picked up by the students, the instructors asked open-ended questions to guide students toward these points.
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