Discussion as a Way of Teaching

A number of the strategies in Discussion as a Way of Teaching dealt with preparing a group for discussion well before any discussion actually begins. A prevalent theme throughout the article is the importance of mutually agreed upon expectations for discussion. I had heard of groups agreeing on ground rules prior to discussion, but I had not encountered specific strategies for working with a group to help them develop their own ground rules for discussion. Initially, I was skeptical of this approach; I could see this approach being difficult for certain groups of students. Younger students might struggle to reflect on past discussion experience. Older students might have such diverse past discussion experience that consensus on ground rules could be difficult. What if the ground rules that the group generates aren’t particularly conducive to learning?  But as I continued reading and reflecting on this approach, I began to see its merits. The approach would need to be modified and augmented and guided by the instructor to fit their specific group of students and their goals, but allowing a group to create its own discussion ground rules can have some major benefits. Student generated guidelines for discussion encourage buy-in. Allowing them to have a role in deciding how discussions will be conducted empowers them to participate in those discussions. This strategy validates the voice of the students before discussion even begins.

Another theme that appeared throughout the article was the ground rule that discussion participants must preface their own comments by drawing connections to the ideas of the previous speaker. I could see this strategy adding a number of benefits to a group discussion. Enforcing this ground rule encourages participants to listen to what other people are saying and keeps the conversation cohesive. It also makes each speaker feel heard as the next speaker acknowledges something that they said. It could also limit the degree to which tangents veer from the topic at hand.

The “Newsprint Dialogues” strategy was an interesting approach to discussion largely because it reminded me of online comment conversations. Getting to walk around and comment on responses that other groups have made resembles a facebook post comment train. With this, comes an opportunity to teach students about the crossover between this kind of discussion and discussions that they may have online. It could be a great way to model for them a way to have thoughtful and fruitful conversations in this kind of context.