Designing and Using Classroom Discussions UNCW Center for Teaching Excellence Questions I have often asked myself and some personal solutions:Why plan on having classroom discussions?
Cognitive Benefits: · Active learning reinforces other methods of delivery of course content. · Cooperative learning may be effective in cases where individual learning is not. · Greater diversity of ideas; less impersonal, more meaningful engagement with ideas · Students tend to be able to learn more by teaching/explaining to others. Discussion provides a model for future scholarly work/career tracks that involve group work.
How can I incorporate discussion into a class?
Alternate lectures with discussion by asking not only for confirmation of factual content, but by asking open-ended questions, or questions that evaluate the reasoning involved in synthesizing a sequence of ideas.
Ask students to write a brief response to an open-ended question that involves a review of a complexity of facts and interpretations or to a question that evaluates reasoning. Let them know that their responses will be the basis of a discussion. Either assign the question in advance of the class session in which the discussion will take place or devote a brief time at the beginning of the discussion to the written response (5-10 minutes).
Break up students into smaller groups and give each group a problem to solve and then present to the rest of the class. Emphasize that the class as a whole has a responsibility toward giving each group its full attention when it makes its presentation. Ask students to write follow-up questions and comments.
Identify classroom "leaders" and use them to involve other students in discussion.
Unless a student is suffering from an attitude problem (see the article on "Difficult Behaviors in the Classroom"), it is likely that the question or remark is prompted by a real concern. It is rather difficult for students to ask or answer questions in class without trusting the audience (the most frightening member of which is YOU). A short talk on discussion protocol would help most students understand that classroom discussions are not intended to be humiliating in any way and that they help accomplish goals that would otherwise be impossible or much more difficult to attain. A "stupid" question or remark often indicates that a student has not understood or accepted some or all of the underlying assumptions about the form of knowledge you are teaching. It is very possible that, if one student asks the question, others will be grateful.
How should I interpret silence?
Students need time to think over what they will say in active discussion. Pause after asking a question and don’t jump in yourself even if silence makes you uncomfortable. The actual amount of time spent in silence is probably far less than you think.
How can I jump-start a dying or dead discussion? What should I do with leftover time?
There is no such thing as leftover time! First, face the fact that sometimes the discussion really is over and it need not continue, even though there is more class time left to use. Have something prepared for the occasion or move on to the next item on the class agenda. If, on the other hand, the class seems to have become tongue-tied, this is the time for you to give your account of the topic, including a disclosure of your reasoning about it and problems you might have with your approach or the prevailing approach of the discipline in which you are engaged. (This is how research gets started!) It may also be time to summarize the discussion (which takes longer than you think sometimes) and make a point of explaining how the discussion leads to whatever is next on the class agenda.
What makes discussion worthwhile from an instructor’s point of view?
I am ecstatic when a class discussion duplicates the reasoning that would take place in actually solving a problem. This process either parallels the way that a discipline or set of disciplines historically has approached a problem, or, better yet, it contradicts it in some interesting way that throws the whole issue into a new light. Classroom discussion that makes discoveries, even if these same discoveries have been made before, is worthwhile.
Director, Center for Teaching Excellence November 12, 1997
The DESKTOP PRESS imprints collections of articles of interest to university instructors seeking to improve their teaching.
This volume on Designing and Using Classroom Discussion has several features that should encourage and stimulate readers to actively involve students in the work of the classroom.
A series by LaSalle University examines research about the college classroom and explores peer learning and teaching as an alternative to lectures.
Articles by Sonoma University and Hawaii Community College look at the nature of questions – asking and answering – as a means of stimulating active inquiry and oral response in the classroom.
The Searle Center for Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University directs instructors on how to manage discussion in a mid-size class.
A more radical approach is taken by Indiana State University in "Student Generated Test Questions" as a technique for getting feedback from students.
"Difficult Behaviors in the Classroom" (CC Hawaii) addresses student comportment issues and offers several solutions to each kind of problem.
The Pennsylvania State University publishes an annotated bibliography of works on collaborative learning, included here.
A practical series of suggestions from UC Berkeley ranges from how to paraphrase student questions to how to discuss points of view other than your own.
Finally, "We Never Said It Would Be Easy," by Richard M. Felder (NCSU) describes the process of designing and using cooperative learning techniques in a refreshingly realistic manner. |
