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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.