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Chapter 1

Classroom Discussion

Classroom discussion is an instructional method that engages learners in a conversation for the purpose of learning content and related skills. By engaging in quality classroom discussion, students build understanding of the subject matter, delve deeper into their own perspectives, present their own views verbally, support their arguments with evidence, listen and respond critically, take notes, and critique themselves and others.

According to Michael Hale and Elizabeth City (2006), “student-centered discussions are conversations in which students wrestle with ideas and engage in open-ended questions together through dialogue” (p. 3). In particular, there are two goals for a quality classroom discussion (Hale & City, 2006).

1. Teachers must deepen students’ understanding of ideas in instructional content, as well as their own ideas and the ideas of others.

2. Teachers must develop students’ abilities to engage in a civil, intellectually challenging discussion of ideas.

Hale and City (2006) note that “through close examination and discussion of ideas, along with the use of texts and other learning materials, students develop the skills and habits of reading analytically, listening carefully, citing evidence, disagreeing respectfully, and being open-minded” (pp. 3–4). Similarly, Stephen Brookfield and Stephen Preskill (2005) write that discussion causes “people to expand their horizons, develop new interests, and appreciate new perspectives” (p. 34), as suggested in the following fifteen benefits of discussion (Brookfield & Preskill, 2005).

1. Helps students explore a diversity of perspectives

2. Increases students’ awareness of and tolerance for ambiguity or complexity

3. Helps students recognize and investigate their assumptions

4. Encourages attentive, respectful listening

5. Develops new appreciation for continuing differences

6. Increases intellectual agility

7. Helps students connect with a topic

8. Shows respect for students’ voices and experiences

9. Helps students learn the processes and habits of democratic discourse

10. Affirms students as cocreators of knowledge

11. Develops the capacity for the clear communication of ideas and meaning

12. Develops habits of collaborative learning

13. Increases breadth of understanding and makes students more empathic

14. Helps students develop skills of synthesis and integration

15. Leads to transformation

Virtually all teachers have experience organizing and leading classroom discussions; in fact, along with lecture and questioning, discussion is one of the most prominent instructional techniques used in classrooms—especially secondary classrooms. By looking at the research on classroom discussion, it’s easy to see why.

What Research Says About Classroom Discussion

In an experimental study that examines the effect of collaborative classroom discussion on the quality of students’ essay writing by randomly assigning students to two groups either with or without discussion, Alina Reznitskaya et al. (2001) find that students who participate in collaborative discussion use a significantly greater number of relevant arguments, counterarguments, rebuttals, formal argument devices, and text information than students who do not engage in discussion. Another experimental study by Clark Chinn, Angela O’Donnell, and Theresa Jinks (2000) finds that both content and structure of the discussion matter for collaborative discussion learning. By diagramming the discourse structures that emerge during small-group discussion in science classes, the authors characterize these structures as a network of arguments and counterarguments with varied degrees of complexity and depth. They also find that student content learning is associated with the quality of those argument structures: the more complex the discourse structures, the better the student learning.

Karen Murphy, Ian Wilkinson, Anna Soter, Maeghan Hennessey, and John Alexander (2009) reviewed empirical research to determine the effects of classroom discussion on students’ comprehension and learning of text. Results reveal that discussion approaches produce substantial increases in the amount of student talk and reductions in teacher talk, as well as considerable improvement in text comprehension. However, there is no consistent evidence that discussion can increase students’ inferential comprehension and critical thinking and reasoning, and the effects are mediated by factors such as the nature of the outcome measure. Table 1.1 presents the specific effect sizes of various discussion approaches on a number of student outcome measures.

What we conclude from the review of studies reported here is that discussion has an overall positive impact on advancing students’ learning; however, the effectiveness of discussion is contingent on how the discussion is structured and how sensitive it is to the instructional goals. For instance, if the purpose is for general comprehension or comprehension of explicit meaning of texts, instructional conversation in which teachers and students respond to each other’s provocative ideas and experiences would be a better option. If the learning goal is to enhance students’ critical-thinking skills, then collaborative reasoning would be a more appropriate approach, as students would have to engage in reasoned argumentation.

How to Move From Research to Practice

Despite the ubiquitous nature of discussions, there are guidelines that effective teachers should consider as they seek to improve their skills as discussion designers and facilitators. Ronald Hyman (1980) proposes four major types of discussion for use in classrooms.

1. Policy discussion: This type of discussion focuses on students’ reactions toward certain issues and requires the group to take a stand.

2. Problem-solving discussion: This type of discussion requires groups of learners to seek an answer to a problem or conflict.

3. Explaining discussion: This type of discussion asks students to analyze and articulate causes and effects.

4. Predicting discussion: This type of discussion prompts students to predict the probable consequences of a given situation or position.

Teachers determine which discussion approach to use based on the learning objectives. For instance, they can use a problem-solving discussion for more sophisticated learning processes and can include all the major components of problem identification, problem analysis, potential solutions, solution evaluation, decision making, and even solution implementation. On the other hand, discussion can be streamlined to involve only formulating hypotheses and predicting probable consequences.

Ways to Start a Discussion

There are many ways to start a classroom discussion. Murphy et al. (2009) review nine such approaches (the effect sizes of which can be seen in table 1.1).

First is collaborative reasoning. In this strategy,

the teacher poses a central question deliberately chosen to evoke varying points of view. Students adopt a position on the issue and generate reasons that support their position. Using the text, as well as personal experiences and background knowledge, students proceed to evaluate reasons, to consider alternative points of view, and to challenge the arguments of others. (Murphy et al., 2009, p. 742)

Table 1.1: Effect Sizes of Discussion Approaches

Text-Explicit Comprehension: Comprehension requiring information that is explicitly stated, usually within a sentence

Text-Implicit Comprehension: Comprehension requiring integration of information across sentences, paragraphs, or pages

Scriptally Implicit Comprehension: Comprehension requiring considerable use of prior knowledge in combination with information in text

Critical Thinking and Reasoning: Reasoned, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do, drawing inferences or conclusions

Argumentations: Taking a position on an issue and arguing for that position on the basis of evidence

Metacognition: Students’ understanding of their own thinking

Source: Murphy et al., 2009.

Next is philosophy for children, in which students share reading, listening, or viewing with their teacher and devise their own questions. They choose one question that interests them, and with the teacher’s help, discuss it together. The teacher encourages students to welcome the diversity of initial views and then involves them in questioning assumptions, developing opinions with supporting reasons, analyzing significant concepts, and applying good reasoning and judgment.

Third is the Paideia seminar. This strategy fosters critical and creative thinking through seminar dialogue, intellectual coaching, and mastery of information. It usually involves three steps: (1) a preseminar content preparation session, (2) a seminar to discuss the ideas, and (3) a postseminar process to assess participation and application of ideas.

Fourth is questioning the author, which aims to engage students deeply in the process of deriving meaning from text and in questioning the author’s position as an expert. The teacher encourages students to pose queries to the author while reading a given text, rather than after reading. The queries may look like “What is the author trying to say?” “Why does the author use the following phrase?” or “Does the author explain this clearly?”

Fifth is instructional conversation. This strategy resembles a paradox. It is instructional and aims to promote learning but is also conversational in quality, with natural and spontaneous language interactions free from the didactic language normally used in teaching. In an instructional conversation, the teacher listens carefully, makes guesses about students’ intended meanings, and adjusts responses to help students better construct knowledge.

Sixth is junior great books. Students work with complex ideas and rigorous texts to develop skills in reading, thinking, and communicating. They use interpretive discussions and construct inferential and thematic meanings from the text.

Seventh is literature circles, wherein a group of four students collaborates to select a book to read. The teacher assigns each member one of the four roles: (1) discussion director, (2) literary luminary, (3) vocabulary enricher, and (4) checker. In this way, all students are involved deeply in the process.

Eighth is grand conversation, which is a strategy that involves authentic, lively talk about text. The teacher initiates the discussion with a big, overarching question or interpretive prompt. The talk pattern is conversational, and the teacher provides authentic responses to students’ statements.

The final strategy is book club. In this strategy, students choose what to read and establish their own schedule for reading and discussing books. The key for this strategy is having students read for the sheer joy of it.

One technique Murphy et al. (2009) do not touch on is the Socratic seminar, which can be used for both fiction and nonfiction texts. Within the Socratic seminar, it is important to understand the teacher’s role.

• Be the facilitator, not the director.

• Pose well-thought-out, open-ended questions.

• Give no response, positive or negative, to students’ discussions.

• Pose questions to move discussion past stalemate positions.

The teacher also needs to explain the guidelines to the students if they are not familiar with a Socratic seminar. The guidelines typically include the following.

• The group sits in a circle, allowing all to make eye contact.

• Students must be prepared!

• Everyone must be respectful of all opinions.

• One student speaks at a time.

• Students should direct comments to classmates (not the teacher).

• Disagreement is fine—as long as it is respectful.

• The speaker should support opinions with textual evidence.

• There is no single right answer.

Lengthy and deep discussions are characterized by complex webs of positions, supportive reasons and evidence, and counterarguments against those reasons and evidence, and the Socratic seminar is one way to prompt such discussion.

Even equipped with these strategies, however, it’s helpful to know how to start an engaging conversation with students. Based on the work of Nonye Alozie and Claire Mitchell (2014), William Ewens (1986), and Hale and City (2006), we’ve put together several easy approaches for beginning a class discussion.

• Start the discussion by posing a broad, open-ended, thematic question that has no obvious right or wrong answer but that genuinely puzzles students and will stimulate thought.

• Begin with a concrete, common experience; a newspaper story; a film; a slide; a demonstration; or a role play.

• Analyze a specific problem. Ask students to identify all possible aspects of the topic or issue under consideration.

• Be benignly disruptive. Start the discussion with a controversy by either causing disagreement among students over an issue or by stating objectively both sides of a controversial topic.

• Help students start to think about what they will learn, and help them access their prior knowledge and understanding of a topic.

• Come to a consensus on the rules for participation, listening, and acceptable ways of interacting. It is important to clarify that students are supposed to address each other with statements and questions rather than directing them to the teacher.

• Establish, or have students brainstorm, accepted criteria for evidence and ways of reasoning. Clarify how the evaluation of the learning and the process will work.

Consider a ninth-grade English teacher’s reflection of her lesson using discussion.

Our discussion lesson on Romeo and Juliet had a theme of decisions and consequences. This was the third time this year we had a full discussion lesson. I reviewed a few slides with students at the beginning of the lesson so they remember the rules, and I included the prompts for student discussions on the last slide. I’ve found that the students enjoy the discussion, though at first it is difficult to get them to speak up. Students using graphic organizers to take notes during their reading (such as the bubble maps on the characters in Romeo and Juliet) are more prepared and better able to discuss. Some students have complained that they would rather just talk and not have to cite their evidence in the text, but I have explained to them that this is English class, so citing from the text is the purpose—we’re not just here to discuss philosophy (although that can be part of it). I think this type of discussion is great for students to practice their critical thinking and communication skills.

Compared to one-way lecturing, discussion is an effective way to encourage greater levels of student participation. High-quality discussion also means that students have time to reflect and prepare thought-provoking comments.

Techniques for Improving a Discussion

Once the discussion has started, there are several techniques teachers can use to improve it. Here, we synthesize and present a number of practice tips to help facilitate classroom discussion (Alozie & Mitchell, 2014; Barton, 1995; Henning, McKeny, Foley, & Balong, 2012; van Drie & Dekker, 2013; Worsley, 1975). For instance, when introducing listening strategies to students, the teacher mentally prepares them to listen by encouraging them to consider the context of the upcoming discussion and to establish a purpose or goal for listening. The students stay in communication when another person is talking by actively signaling their listening engagement both nonverbally and verbally.

It’s important to note that because students usually need time to think before speaking, the teacher should wait until a student breaks the silence instead of rephrasing or asking a new question. Similarly, aggressive students tend to monopolize discussions, while teachers need to call on shy students. To avoid these scenarios, the teacher can ask an overly talkative student to help by remaining silent. In addition, it is usually easier for shy students to speak in small groups than large ones, and once students have spoken in small-group situations, they will be less reluctant to do so in a larger group. With shy students, teachers can provide cues, give hints, suggest strategies, or draw attention to salient features or particular points of interest to support students as they get into the discussion. Teachers should also assure students that there is no one right answer. Most students are accustomed to discussion situations in which there is a single correct answer or conclusion, and once they realize that there are multiple correct answers, they will be less timid about responding creatively.

Students need to feel that their opinions are valued. If a student makes an astute point that is ignored by the class, the teacher should point it out. Teachers should promote an appreciative atmosphere in the classroom; everyone—teachers and students alike—should value and really listen to what students say. Along those same lines, the discussions should be relevant to students’ lives and concerns. Teachers cannot and need not make everything seem immediately relevant, but whenever possible, they should apply the field of inquiry under discussion to everyday living.

It’s important to maintain a collective environment to promote student responsibility and orchestrate turn-based discourse. An effective teacher reformulates questions and interpretations when needed or recaps and elaborates on perspectives to deepen the discussion. One way to keep the ball rolling is to allow breakout sessions in which students in pairs or small groups gather their thoughts about a particular concept or argument.

While the students are in the midst of a discussion, the teacher can move to the back of the room or out of students’ line of sight to encourage student-to-student interaction, all while continually monitoring behaviors that may interfere with discussion. For instance, the teacher can keep track of student responses with verbal summaries or use of a public document, such as a chart on the SMART Board, overhead display, or dry-erase board. Or he or she can also use graphic organizers to synthesize student contributions while maintaining instructional focus on a certain new concept. This approach usually encourages both student listening and reflection.

These techniques make classroom discussion effective and more manageable. They allow teachers to establish a learning-centered climate characterized by active engagement, dialogue, and multiway communication. They can also foster extensive collaboration between students and teachers for higher levels of reflective and critical thinking and creative problem solving.

Summary

By verbalizing ideas and opinions during discussion, students not only deepen their understanding of subject content but also learn the important life skill of communication. Through discussion, the talk in classroom is no longer a monologue; students actively learn from each other. In fact, successful discussion prompts students to continuously refine, articulate, and synthesize their knowledge.

To close the chapter, we include several handouts to help teachers effectively integrate discussions into the classroom. In the handout “Types of Student Discussions,” we look at the nine methods that Murphy et al. (2009) reference. There are many approaches to organizing student discussion around text, and various types of student discussion impact learning outcomes differently (such as text comprehension versus higher-order critical thinking). We recommend that teachers evaluate the students’ learning needs and select the method that is best aligned with the learning objectives.

To further the use of a Socratic seminar, we’ve included a rubric on page 11 that defines levels of performance for students and clearly identifies the skills, knowledge, understanding, and conduct teachers expect students to demonstrate. The rubric may overwhelm students new to Socratic seminars, so more explanation may give students a better understanding of expectations.

Finally, we include the “Student Self-Assessment of Discussion” handout (page 13). Students themselves are critical to the success of student-centered discussions. At the end of the discussion, the teacher can encourage students to reflect on what they’ve done well and what they can improve. This tool provides a sample format for student self-assessment.

Types of Student Discussions

Strategy	Description	Decision
Critical-analytic
Collaborative reasoning	In this strategy, “the teacher poses a central question deliberately chosen to evoke varying points of view. Students adopt a position on the issue and generate reasons that support their position. Using the text, as well as personal experiences and background knowledge, students proceed to evaluate reasons, to consider alternative points of view, and to challenge the arguments of others.” (Murphy et al., 2009, p. 742)	Appropriate Not Appropriate
Philosophy for children	Students share reading, listening, or viewing with their teacher and devise their own questions. They choose one question that interests them and, with the teacher’s help, discuss it. The teacher encourages students to welcome the diversity of initial views and then involves them in questioning assumptions, developing opinions with supporting reasons, analyzing significant concepts, and applying good reasoning and judgment.	Appropriate Not Appropriate
Paideia seminar	This strategy fosters critical and creative thinking through seminar dialogue, intellectual coaching, and mastery of information. It usually involves three steps: a preseminar content preparation, a seminar to discuss the ideas, and a postseminar process to assess participation and application of ideas.	Appropriate Not Appropriate
Efferent
Questioning the author	This strategy aims to engage students deeply in the process of deriving meaning from text and in questioning the author’s position as an expert. The teacher encourages students to pose queries to the author while reading a given text rather than after reading. The queries may look like “What is the author trying to say?,” “Why does the author use the following phrase?,” or “Does the author explain this clearly?”	Appropriate Not Appropriate
Instructional conversation	This strategy resembles a paradox. It is instructional and aims to promote learning but is also conversational in quality, with natural and spontaneous language interactions free from the didactic characteristic of language normally used for teaching. In the instructional conversation, the teacher listens carefully, makes guesses about students’ intended meanings, and adjusts responses to help students better construct knowledge.	Appropriate Not Appropriate
Junior great books	Students work with complex ideas and rigorous texts to develop skills in reading, thinking, and communicating. They use interpretive discussions and construct inferential and thematic meanings from the text.	Appropriate Not Appropriate
Expressive
Literature circles	A group of four students selects a book to read. The teacher assigns each member one of the four roles: (1) discussion director, (2) literary luminary, (3) vocabulary enricher, and (4) checker. In this way, all students are involved deeply in the process.	Appropriate Not Appropriate
Grand conversation	This strategy involves authentic, lively talk about text. The teacher initiates the discussion with a big, overarching question or interpretive prompt. The talk pattern is conversational, and the teacher provides authentic responses to students’ statements.	Appropriate Not Appropriate
Book club	Students choose what to read and establish their own schedule for reading and discussing books. The key for this strategy is having students read for the sheer joy of it.	Appropriate Not Appropriate

Source: Adapted from Murphy, P. K., Wilkinson, I. A. G., Soter, A. O., Hennessey, M. N., & Alexander, J. F. (2009). Examining the effects of classroom discussion on students’ comprehension of text: A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(3), 740–764.

Socratic Seminar Rubric

Student Self-Assessment of Discussion

The goals for this discussion were:

1.

2.

3.

How well did I achieve these goals?

The most rewarding thing about this discussion was:

The most challenging thing about this discussion was:

The next time I am part of a similar discussion, I will make the following changes.