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:
Action:
Reason:
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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.
Action:
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Encourage students to participate in class discussion by giving those who participate with a piece of candy or other treat, participation points or extra credit, or verbal affirmation.
Reason:
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This can help alter students’ interpretation of their peers’ motivation for participating and thereby reduce potential stigma. Moreover it provides a counter motivation to the fear of participating.
Action:
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Explain that you use in-class discussion to help students:
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Learn from each other
- Practice articulating their ideas about the topic
- Identify and address misconceptions about the topic within the class
- Extend their knowledge beyond the ideas in the readings or class materials
Reason:
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Help students understand that discussion during class is designed to accomplish specific learning goals.
Action:
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Write student names on notecards to allow you to call on students randomly during class.
- To avoid your bias about students influencing what questions they get asked, it is best to ask the question first before picking a student to answer. This also encourages all students to listen to and think about the question.
- This strategy only works if students feel safe making mistakes. Otherwise this can make students feel threatened and ultimately not able to focus on the course content. To create this safe environment you can celebrate confusion and allow students to pass. If a student passes on a question, it can be helpful to return to them to make sure they can later answer the question.
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Harvey Mudd College faculty member Melissa O’Neill has co-authored a paper with a description of this technique.
Reason:
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This ensures an even distribution of opportunities to participate.
Action:
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There are three typical ways to have students track and report their participation:
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Midway through class, ask students “who hasn’t yet contributed?”
- Give students a card to keep on their desk that is face up before they have contributed and face down once they contribute. You can use the cards to identify who hasn’t had the opportunity to contribute.
- Give students a quarter sheet of paper and ask them to write their name, whether or not they made a contribution, and perhaps an insight that they’ll take away from the class. This practice is called an exit ticket and has many variations.
Reason:
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This decreases the difficulty of keeping track of which students have participated in class and creates a climate of shared responsibility.
- This communicates to students that you care about everyone’s ideas and also expect everyone to participate.
- This can help students who participate frequently understand the goal of everyone having the opportunity to participate.
Action:
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At the beginning of class, or during a lull in conversation, ask students to do a short writing task or small group discussion.
Reason:
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This ensures that everyone’s attention is focused on the issue at hand and has the opportunity to prepare a contribution for discussion.
- Small group discussions can allow students to check their ideas with a peer and to share comments or ask questions that they would hesitate to ask in front of the whole class.
Action:
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Share discussion questions with students before class. Ask students to think about these questions and come prepared to discuss them.
Reason:
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Providing discussion questions in advance can help students develop their ideas who might find it challenging to collect their thoughts and interject them within a quickly evolving discussion. If students have the opportunity to prepare statements in advance they might be better able to contribute. This can be particularly helpful for students who are shy, introverted, or are taking a class that is not taught in their native language.
Action:
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Make it explicit how students should indicate that they want to be called on to speak. For example, you might ask students who want to make a new contribution to hold up a hand and students who want to build on a previous contribution to hold up a finger.
- Prioritize students who are building upon other students’ contributions, if that is appropriate for where you are in the discussion.
Reason:
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Not all strategies students us to try to gain access to the conversation are equally effective. Asking students to adopt a common method to enter the conversation gives you an opportunity to call on quiet students and make the conversation more coherent..
Action:
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Along with reading assignments, ask students to look over discussion questions and/or complete reading responses or pre-class quizzes.
- These pre-class assignments can have students develop clarifying questions that can help launch class discussions.
- Look over these reading responses or quizzes to identify common questions or misunderstandings to address in class.
- You can ask students who rarely contribute to class discussions to read out their pre-written question or answer to kick off the discussion.
Reason:
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Some students contribute very little to classroom discussions because they are simply unprepared. Some students are confused by the reading or lectures but are too shy to ask their questions in class without being first called upon. Other students can find it challenging to develop their ideas or collect their thoughts within a quickly evolving discussion. In addition, pre-class assignments are helpful to students who are taking a class that is not taught in their native language..
