Discussion Strategies

Best Practices | Planning

Best Practices

• The Dreaded Discussion: Ten Ways to Start, Peter Frederick. Ideas to start discussions in a quiet classroom and involve different groups of students.
• Effective Classroom Discussions, William E. Cashin, Kansas State University, IDEA Paper #49.
• Literature Discussion Strategies, Kathy G. Short, California State University, Northridge. Ways to start discussions through novels - could potentially work with narrative texts.
• Managing a Discussion in a Large Class, Part of a YouTube channel from Center for Excellent in Learning and Teaching at Iowa State University (see description).
• Teaching Methods and Strategies, Instructor Guide to Teaching and Learning at Brock University. Scroll down past the section on lecturing to find a fanstic list of ideas for using various discussion formats in class.
• Ten Strategies for Effective Discussion Leading, James R. Dawes, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University. Things for a professor to keep in mind to lead a strong and productive discussion.
• Why So Quiet? Strategies for Engaging your Students in the Discussion, Catherine Savini, Westfield State University. Includes reasons students may not choose to participate, and how to get discussions away from teacher-centered.

Planning

• Implementing Interactive Activities in a Large Class to Build Community,  Part of a YouTube channel from Center for Excellent in Learning and Teaching at Iowa State University (see description).
• Norms of Collaboration: Annotated, Center for Adaptive Schools. Expansion on the norms of group work, which naturally expands into group discussions.
• Teaching with Discussions, The Teaching Center, Washington University in St. Louis. Covers getting started, what to do during the discussion, and afterwards. Has additional resources.