Center for Teaching Excellence,
Iowa State University
March, 1998
to think about your objectives for the course and the discussion sessions and
then compare them to the objectives below (taken from Teaching Tips by
McKeachie).
8. Help students learn to think in terms of the subject matter by giving them
practice in thinking.
9. Help students learn to evaluate the logic of, and evidence for, their own
and others' positions.
10. Give students opportunities to formulate applications of principles.
11. Help students become aware of and formulate problems using information
gained from readings or lectures.
12. Use the resources of members of the group.
13. Gain acceptance for information or theories counter to folklore or previous
beliefs of students. [Which implies that you find out what your students
believe. This can be extremely useful at the beginning of the semester.]
14. Develop motivation for further learning.
15. Get prompt feedback on how well objectives are being attained. If you want
to achieve any or some of the goals in this list, then discussion is usually an
effective method.
16. It helps to prepare a background for small discussion groups.
17. Make a safe place. Students will not contribute to a discussion if they are
afraid that they will be ridiculed for what they say. This needs to be done by
an explicit statement and by demonstration.
18. Have clear objectives for the discussions and communicate them clearly. Are
the small groups meant to discuss specific assigned readings? Are they where
students ask questions to clarify what they do not understand (and if they have
no questions are they all excused)? Are these "mini lectures" in which you are
presenting new information?
19. Formulate and communicate your expectations of the students. Will they be
graded on participation? This is not usually a good incentive because it's
difficult to coerce participation and students have the impression that
participation can never be graded fairly, anyway. It's better if they form more
intrinsic reasons for participation such as a feeling of responsibility to the
group or because it's fun and interesting. Also, let students know that a
discussion is not a series of two-way exchanges between the instructor and each
student. Some students have not had much experience with group discussions and
do not really understand what is expected of them.
20. Avoid yes/no questions. Ask "why" or "how" questions that lead to
discussion and when students give only short answers, ask them to elaborate.
Also, avoid questions that have only one answer. This isn't "Jeopardy" and
students shouldn't be put into the position of trying to guess which set of
words you have in mind.
21. Don't fear silence. This may be the most difficult thing to do but it's
absolutely essential. When we are responsible for facilitating a discussion, we
tend to feel that a lack of response within one or two beats is stretching into
an eternity. But even if you have posed a very interesting question or
situation, the students will need some time to think and formulate a response.
If you have very reticent students, you can try asking them to write down one
or two ideas before you open up discussion. Or try handing out a list of
discussion topics at the end of the session for the next session to give them
time to think. Even so, there may be times when there is just no response.
That's when you need to re-state the topic, use a different example, take only
a part of it at a time, or throw out a "what if" scenario or devil's advocate
proposition. But the important thing is to learn to bide your time and bite
your tongue and wait for the students to respond.
especially if the group can sit around a table. If you can't re-arrange the
furniture, then move around the room, sit among the students; become a
discussion participant rather than a teacher.