Learn About Discussions
Teacher-to-student and whole-class discussions are great ways to activate students’ prior knowledge by allowing them opportunities to orally share their ideas and discuss their opinions. The art of discussion is an important piece in the learning process. A common mistake many teachers make is to present a question or idea and expect most of their students to respond and discuss. It can be frustrating and a waste of time for both the teacher and students to listen to a select few students have a discussion.
To conduct successful discussions, teachers need:
- To be armed with the right types of questions and ready to respond to various answers
- To be able to use “teachable moments” to spark student interest and keep the discussion lively
- To use the discussion as a jumping off point for new content
- To pose questions that directly relate to students and their prior knowledge
- To allow the students to lead the discussion with teacher facilitation and probing
- To accept all appropriate answers as correct and encourage additional responses by others
- To permit “think time” and use think-pair-share strategies to think about answers before having students respond
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