Dusting off the Tool Box: Tips for Trainers
Section 2: Handout 7
Tips for Getting a Discussion Going
In October 1999, the Center for Teaching Excellence at The University of Maine organized a workshop on Leading a Discussion, led by Kristin Langellier and James Berg. Much of the material for the workshop came from the teaching experiences of Langellier, winner of the 1991 Presidential Outstanding Teaching Award at The University of Maine, and Berg, director of the Center. Below is some of the material from the workshop.
Ideas for getting discussions started include:
• Use a brief writing exercise to let participants gather their thoughts.
• Use think-pair-share, i.e. have participants think individually for a minute or two, turn to the person next to them to discuss their ideas for three minutes, and then have a full-group discussion.
• Ask open-ended questions with more than one right answer.
• Ask questions that call for not only for recall or comprehension, but application, synthesis, and analysis.
The following tips were adapted by Kristin Langellier from Stephen D. Brookfield and Stephen Preskill’s, Discussion as a Way of Learning (Jossey-Bass, 1999).
Strategies for Distributing Participation in Discussion
1. Set up and monitor ground rules for talking in class. Reaffirm them when you need to throughout the semester. Monitor and act against any speech that is hostile to individuals.
2. Model expectations for distributing participation in discussion groups early in course (e.g. inviting others to talk, controlling how long any one participant speaks, giving way to other speakers, welcoming questions and criticism, and arguing against your own ideas).
3. Facilitate participants talking with each other. Don’t overestimate the value of your own contributions, and don't underestimate what your participants can do. Ask yourself: Do I respond to every participant who speaks? Do participants pause before responding to each other because they expect me to make a comment each time?
4. We often do not give participants enough time for thought in discussion. Consider calling for time-outs: periods of reflective silence when participants think about important points that have been made, contradictions that have surfaced, omissions that occur to them, and where the discussion should go next. Participants make a few notes on these matters, and teachers begin the next phase of discussion by asking participants who haven’t spoken much to read out what they’ve written.
5. Introduce regular exercises and rules for discourse that guard against one person’s dominating the conversation (e.g., being able only to talk about other people’s ideas and waiting three turns before speaking again).
6. Vary kinds of participation: whole class in class, small groups in class, electronic discussions, etc. When you work with small groups, assign specific roles or tasks for participants. This gives purpose, a sense of security, and distribution. Migrate among the groups to monitor and encourage participation.
7. Keep track of and analyze classroom participation, including your own. (Do a record yourself; ask one or two participants to do it for you; invite a trusted colleague to observe and record, audiotape, or videotape.) Consider distribution of talk among participants and how your own behaviors facilitate, interrupt, or stall discussions.
James J. Berg, Ph.D.
Center for Teaching Excellence
Cooperating Assistant Professor of English
The University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469-5719
207/581-3472
james.berg@umit.maine.edu
www.umaine.edu/teaching