In-class discussions can help students develop critical thinking skills, but effective discussions require structure and planning.

Garside, C. (1996). Look who's talking: A comparison of lecture and group discussion teaching strategies in developing critical thinking skills.

 

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Facilitating In-Class Discussions: Facilitating a Coherent Discussion
Facilitating In-Class Discussions: Picking Good Discussion Topics
Facilitating In-Class Discussions: Working with Quiet Students
Facilitating In-Class Discussions: Working with Oversharers

Look for common problems that arise in class discussions to determine which intervention is best.

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Action:

  • Common issues that may arise during classroom discussions and suggestions for how to deal with them
    • No one is talking or it is hard to get people talking.
      • Craft your discussion prompt carefully (see related tips).
      • Put your discussion prompt on the screen or write it on the board.
      • Give students some private think time before asking for responses. If a question is worth discussing, then it is worth thinking about before speaking
      • Be comfortable with silence. Don’t continually repeat and rephrase your question, since this might just confuse students.
      • Try “think pair share” (See related tip)
    • Serious disagreement occurs and there are hurt feelings.
      • Encourage students who have hurt feelings to say “ouch” or point out that the disagreement has caused hurt feelings.
      • If the student who is hurt isn’t speaking up, you might say “If I put myself in the position of ___, I think I would be hurt by what you just said because ___.”
      • Encourage students to ask clarifying questions of each other, or model it for them: “Can you clarify what you meant when you said ___?”
      • Be careful not to ignore the hurt feelings as that can signal that you don’t really care about the hurt feelings. The first step is to get the person who caused the hurt to acknowledge that hurt was caused–separate intent from impact to avoid the student from becoming defensive.
    • A student is not cooperative and doesn’t follow the ground rules.
      • Assuming that everyone has already listened to the ground rules and agreed to them, then the first time this occurs, refer back to the ground rules and check that everyone understands and agrees to them.
      • If a student still doesn’t cooperate, consider meeting with the student after class to discuss whether s/he understands and agrees to the ground rules and what is motivating their behavior. If the student doesn’t agree to the ground rules, ask the student to contribute alterantive ground rules that everyone could live with.
    • A student is quiet or non-participatory.
      • Don’t assume reasons for the student’s non-participation. It could be because the student is sick or is preoccupied by something completely unrelated to the course.
      • During class you can always say “We’ve heard a lot from certain people today and I’m wondering if we can create space for other people who haven’t spoken yet to make their voices heard.”
      • If you are concerned, you can always speak to the student after class, but again, don’t assume too much about what is going on. Ask if there is anything you could have done to encourage him/her to speak more in class.

Reason:

Use tips for building a classroom community to ensure students feel comfortable contributing to discussion.

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Action:

Reason:

  • Research has found that students’ feeling of belonging is important to many aspects of their academic performance: Tinto, V. (1987). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. University of Chicago Press. Chicago, IL.

Establish as a classroom norm that you will occasionally interrupt and refocus the class discussion to create a shared expectations about the importance of keeping the class on track.

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Action:

  • Explain how class discussion will be structured. See example discussion norms from Becky Wai-Ling Packard of Mount Holyoke and guidelines drawn from workshops by Harvard University Professor John Johnson and Harvey Mudd Associate Dean for Diversity Sumun Pendakur.
  • During the first day class session, tell students that you may interrupt the discussion to make sure that there is time to discuss all of the important topics during class.
  • Remind them of this at the beginning class the first few weeks of the semester.

Reason:

  • Sometimes students’ contributions are too long-winded. By establishing this classroom norm, you can more easily keep the discussion moving without this being negatively misinterpreted by the students.

Provide structure and best practices if students lead discussions to ensure that the discussion meets your goals for non-presenters.

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Action:

  • Before students lead a discussion make sure that they understand your goals of having:

    • Civil and respectful discussion
    • Opportunities for all students to contribute
    • Discussion of topics important to the class.
  • Ask student discussion leaders to prepare questions in advance and identify what types of contributions each question might generate.
  • Before students lead a discussion, model and draw students’ attention to the strategies you use to facilitating in-class discussions.
  • You can give student discussion leaders access to classroom discussion tips or examples of strategies that they can chose from (http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/speaking-listening-techniques/)

Reason:

  • Leading discussion can be difficult and students will likely need support to lead effective discussions.

Assign students to participate in different sides of a debate to provide structure to the discussion

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http://teachingtips.pomona.edu/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?post_id=361&action=grunion_form_builder&TB_iframe=true&width=768&id=add_formAction:

  • Assign students to represent different sides of a debate.
  • Ask students to prepare for the debate as you see fit.
  • In class you can have students debate the topic either as a whole class or by putting students in small groups with a few students from each side of a debate.

Reason:

  • Debates engage students and enable them to better respond to one another.

Have students contribute discussion questions to encourage students to think more critically about the class materials.

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Action:

  • Ask students to submit discussion questions online.
  • Provide students with guidelines for discussion questions, examples of discussion questions, and feedback on their discussion questions.
  • When you select discussion questions for use in class, highlight what about the question made it important or good for facilitating discussion to help them improve the discussion questions they write.

Reason:

  • Not only does writing discussion questions encourage students to think more critically but it enables them to share what they find most interesting or challenging about the class material.

Tell students what why discussion is important to help students understand your expectations and focus their attention appropriately.

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Action:

  • Explain to students the role that discussion plays in their learning within the class. For example, you might help students take different perspectives, practice discussing the course content, help them develop a thesis topic, or help resolve confusion about a reading.

Reason:

  • Discussions are used for different purposes. Students are more likely to achieve your learning goals if they know what the goals are for the discussion.

Specify and enforce civil behavior to avoid aggressive or unproductive comments.

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Action:

  • Set explicit rules for civil behavior. You can have students generate these or provide them with a set of guidelines.

    Reason:

    • Explicit rules create shared expectations that will help discussions be productive. Not all students will know how to identify appropriate and inappropriate contributions.

Have students brainstorm clarifying questions for the reading to clear misunderstandings before beginning the class discussion.

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Action:

  • Before class, ask students to generate clarifying questions for the reading. It can be helpful to ask students to also include with each question what steps they have taken to try to answer the question themselves. This can help students practice using their resources to address their own questions.
  • At the beginning of class you can answer students’ questions or allow students to do so.

Reason:

  • These questions encourage students to do the reading, reflect on how much they understand, and help you determine how best to guide the discussion.

Ask discussion questions that can have multiple perspectives to facilitate student contributions.

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Action:

  • Prepare discussion questions for class that could have multiple perspectives or multiple reasonable responses.
  • Let students know that there is more than one reasonable response.
  • When relevant, ask students questions that allow them to build upon their experiences, which can connect the content to their life and allow them to share their unique perspective.
  • The Center for Teaching and Learning at Stanford provides recommendations for creating discussion questions. They recommend asking students questions that require analysis, comparing and contrasting, and exploring cause and effect. They discourage questions that are yes-no questions, unclear, or leading.

Reason:

  • If you ask students to answer questions that have multiple right answers, they can feel more confident in contributing.