GIFTS: Using a Human Likert Scale to Facilitate Discussions about Identity Formation in the Basic Interpersonal Communication Course

• In Event: GIFTS & RIFTS Extended Session: Great and (New this Year) Reprehensible Ideas for Teaching Students

Abstract

The Human Likert Scale activity is a tool used in the basic Interpersonal Communication course as a means of flipping the classroom. The Human Likert Scale activity occurs in three distinct stages: pre-class preparation, in-class activity, and post-class reflection. In the pre-class stage students interact with content in an online module and class reading. Then, in class students use the classroom as a Likert scale and move to places on the scale as they respond to position statements on identity (i.e. “People have one true self that they need to discover.” ). Students must explain why they responded as such and use course vocabulary. Class ends with a discussion of the crystallized self and a reflective writing assignment that is evaluated.

Author

• Elizabeth L. Spradley, Stephen F. Austin State University