Walking into the Tang Institute on my first day, I had no idea what to expect. The *Workshop was and is an enigma to me. I came into my first week with a lot of questions. What will we be doing? Will I gain a deeper understanding of how I learn? Will this be a waste of time? I quickly discovered that everyone had questions, not just me. We also had very few answers. We’ve asked questions about everything from individual learning styles to group projects. What will we be doing? was the big question. The answer: gardening, group projects, painting, and more.
I was placed into the bias group, and we were prompted to explore bias within education. On our first day, we started out with a brainstorm. What is bias? How do we define it? How do we want to explore it within education? How are we going to approach this project? So much of the Workshop revolves around uncertainty and influence over our own learning. Alex ’22, another bias group member, noted that she really likes “the agency that we have over our own learning and schedule, as well as the balance we strike between individual and collaborative work.” I agree.
After much brainstorming, our group narrowed our focus down to exploring bias within our dorm culture and how that, in turn, affects our social groups. We chose dorms because they have established lines of inclusion. We know who is in a dorm, whereas the line between who is and isn’t in a certain friend group is blurred and rather subjective. As we move forward, our group will try to stay cognizant of our own biases surrounding what we want with this project and in general.
