Discussion As A Way Of Teaching

I really enjoyed reading the article, “Discussion As A Way of Teaching” because it allowed future teachers to get ideas on how to keep a discussion alive, while having students fully engaged in the discussion. The idea that many discussions fail because they have unrealistic expectations, unprepared students, no ground rules, reward systems askew, and no teacher modeling. All these complications tend to throw the discussions off task, while students lose interest in the discussion. However, there were some great ideas that would keep the discussion alive and would have students fully engaged within the discussion. The idea about the “Circles of Voices,” was rather very helpful as it gives teachers ideas such as the students getting time to gather their thoughts and ideas for three minutes before the discussion starts. But from there the teacher will allow the students a period of uninterrupted air time as they are taking turns in a circle or volunteering at random. This allows students who are shy or introverted to be involved at least once in the group discussion, as they won’t feel threaten or nervous about their peers’ thoughts or reactions towards their comments or beliefs. Also, some ways to keep the group discussion going for your students are, “Ask a question or make a comment that shows you are interested in what another person says” or “Ask a question or make a comment that encourages another person to elaborate on something they have already said.” However, the “Conversational Roles,” all have great ideas and roles that a teacher can use to help the discussion continue. The one role that was rather interesting would have to be the “Devil’s Advocate,” which the teacher would listen carefully and then formulate or express a contrary view, this view would keep the students in check and would allow them to explore a larger range of interpretations. Overall, the article is an important source to help future teachers out with keeping discussions alive and fun for everybody…