Implementing Discussion-Based Learning

in the Secondary Classroom

Camryn Kidney

Manhattan College

EDUC 376
 In the year 2020, face-to-face communication became a rarity and virtual

communication became the norm. Many teachers and other professionals struggled to

transform their work into something conducive to a virtual format. While many adults

floundered, one group in particular transitioned to virtual life quite effectively: Generation

Z. These young people are self-taught in technological literacy, their adolescent years

defined by the boom of the ever-improving smartphone industry and their developing

brains finely attuned to the complexity of computer applications and the temporary rush

of immediate gratification. Teenagers are intuitive and insightful when it comes to

technology, and in 2020, the world thanked them for it.

However, the side-effects of being a teen immersed in technology are not all

positive. Many young people struggle to communicate and socialize outside the

confines of social media. Many studies have found links between frequent use of

modern technology and anti-social behavior in teenagers (Ives, 2013; Saleem et al.,

2012). Additionally, in her article, Eugenia Ives (2013) writes that smartphone addiction

can cause individuals to struggle with face-to face communication. These individuals

find themselves “wanting to check their phone even while [they’re] talking with someone

in person” (42) and they may “feel anxious or isolated” (42) during in-person social

interactions. Another study in which researchers presented 773 participants with

questionnaires about their smartphone habits and their mental health found a high

correlation between smartphone addiction and social anxiety (Peterka-Bonetta, 2019).

Teenagers today struggle with these social challenges more than any generation

before them, and one significant reason is that they aren’t given significant opportunities

to communicate outside the technological world. At home, many teenagers are allowed
to spend most of their waking hours on their devices. This lack of face-to-face

communication isn’t curbed when students come to school and are expected to spend

most of their class time as passive observers. Researchers Applebee, Langer,

Nystrand, and Gamoran observed and examined 64 middle and high school ELA

classrooms’ discussion practices and found that, on average, every sixty minutes of

class time included only 1.7 minutes of open discussion (707).

This lack of discussion is particularly problematic when educators consider the

pedagogical benefits of discussion-based learning. In this same study, the researchers

found that implementation of discussion-based pedagogy correlated directly with high

student performance. They write that “students in classrooms with… more emphasis on

discussion-based approaches show higher end-of year literacy performance… [that]

were effective across a range of situations, for students of varying levels of academic

ability, whatever classrooms they were in” (719).

Additionally, in his study, “Classroom discussion: a method of instruction and a

curriculum outcome,” (1999) Bruce E. Larson examined teachers’ conceptions of

classroom discussion, researchers found that veteran teachers had plenty to say about

the benefits of class discussion. One teacher noted, “the process of dialogue, or

exchanging ideas, is fundamental to a democratic society. If they can do it in this

artificial environment, then I think I'm guaranteed that they will continue those kinds of

dialogues [in other settings]” (666). It’s clear that the act of discussing allows students to

apply what they learn in school to their home lives and to current events in ways that

other modes of instruction may not.

 Additionally, communication skills are crucial in the professional world, and, as

educators, it’s our job to prepare students with these skills. In her article, “Oral

Emphasis in the English Class,” Margaret Painter (1947) writes:

The functions of the English instructor are to train the whole individual, to prepare

him to live with himself and others, to enable him to meet life-situations, and, if

possible, to make him a contributor to… society. If the teacher meets his moral

obligations to labor toward these goals, he must train youth to express itself

effectively through oral as well as written language (348).

Here, Painter emphasizes the importance of using the classroom as a place where

students are prepared for life after high school. Students in these classrooms become

college students, scholars, members of the work force, leaders, homemakers, and so

much more. In the work force, we must effectively and respectfully communicate with

peers and superiors alike. In everyday adult life, people are expected to converse with

friends, acquaintances, and strangers, displaying empathy and respect. Additionally, as

adult consumers of media and of political information, we must be able to use oral

literacy skills to decode, deconstruct, and describe ideas and arguments with fluency

and accuracy.

I argue that, to aid these problems, we, as educators, should seek to implement

discussion-based learning in our classrooms. As literature indicates, discussion

provides us with an important opportunity to teach communication skills that students

don’t often learn at home or online. After analyzing this literature, I began to develop a

plan to explore the effectiveness of discussion-based learning. With this plan, I sought
to measure how effective discussion was as a tool to teach content in the ELA

classroom. First, I decided to use an initial 10-minute lesson as an entry point into

discussion-based learning. Then, during a longer lesson, I would give students more

substantial time to discuss the content with one another. I would then use the

assessments outlined in the lesson plan, as well as careful observation of the class, to

find qualitative data about the effectiveness of discussion in the classroom.

Day 1

I will begin by prompting an open-ended conversation about students’ prior

knowledge of Martin Luther King, Jr. After reviewing the definitions of mood and tone

with the students, I will introduce the text, “The Other America” by Martin Luther King,

Jr., display passages from it, and read it aloud, reminding students to think about the

guiding questions while we read. The guiding questions were as follows:

1. What is the author’s attitude toward the subject of the text?

2. How does the author make the reader feel about the subject?

3. What specific words and phrases does the author use to convey these

things to us?

I will then prompt students with open-ended questions, encouraging them to note

which words and phrases stick out to them as particularly powerful, emotionally-

charged, or indicative of the author’s tone or mood. I also encouraged them to elaborate

on their responses and connect their responses to the responses of their classmates.

As they discuss with one another, I will note and highlight their responses on my

PowerPoint slide. At the end of the lesson, students will complete a brief exit ticket that
prompts them to respond to the following question: “How do writers express their

thoughts and feelings in texts?” I will use this exit ticket, as well as observation

throughout the class period, as data for my study.

Day 2

In my second lesson, I will prompt students to brainstorm all the moods a person

can be in, then they will create a playlist that exemplifies a mood of their choice. When

the class reconvenes, students will discuss why they picked particular songs and how

they represented their chosen mood. After this discussion, I will transition into a

conversation about how rhetorical devices can determine meaning, tone and mood in a

text.

Then, students will choose a song and explore how certain lyrics contribute to the

mood of the piece. After this exploration, students will have small-group discussions

about their findings about tone and mood in texts, followed by a large-group discussion.

Following the lesson, students will complete a 1-minute exit ticket, which asks the

question, “How do writers express their thoughts and feelings?”

Expected Results

I expect that the implementation of discussion-based learning would improve

students’ higher-level understanding of the content taught in the lesson. Based on

previous research, class discussion has proven quite discussion in improving students

abilities and mastery of content. Of course, this may not be the case for all students, but
I predict that many teachers would see improvements if they regularly implemented

discussion into their classroom routines.

Limitations of This Study

This study only examines how these discussion strategies work for one class at

one school. Additionally, the students are college juniors and seniors, so the results

may not be representative of how discussion-based learning works for large sets of high

school students. This study will talso ake place over only a few days, and students and

teachers may find the discussion more useful if they use them over a much longer

period of time, for example. Additionally, I underestimated the amount of time my

second lesson would take, so parts of the planned discussion were cut short.

Results

Overall, I found the use of discussion-based learning quite effective during my

lessons. Students were engaged in higher-order thinking throughout the lessons, and

they responded well to the open-ended questions they were given. The students

provided particularly insightful comments in the second lesson, perhaps because they

had received ample practice discussing by this point. Over the course of the thirty-

minute lesson, 5 minutes and 17 seconds were spent using discussion. Had I planned

out my time more accurately, this number would probably be closer to about 10

minutes.

During the mood-brainstorming section of the lesson, students had many creative

ideas, and many students bounced off one another’s ideas. One student said, “Happy,”
and then another came up with “ecstatic.” Similarly, after one student came up with

“irritated,” others chimed in with “sad” and “nervous.” After the student who came up

with “sad” spoke, other students added “nonchalant” and “tired” to the list. It’s evident

that students were able to benefit from other students’ responses and use them to come

up with similar ideas.

After the next activity, students did a fantastic job justifying how their song

selections exemplified their chosen mood. One student who chose the song “100 Years”

by Five for Fighting to represent nostalgia said, “It just goes through his life… he’s

fifteen and I remember when I was fifteen, and he says ‘I’m twenty” and I remember

when I was twenty, like a year ago” (12:45). Another student noted that the mood of a

song can be dictated by its genre. They said, “Music that’s more upbeat tends to have a

happy feeling to it… Slower songs like ballads are reserved for love songs” (29:45).

Overall, students’ responses indicated a high level of understanding of the content of

the lesson.
 References

Applebee, A. N., Langer, J. A., Nystrand, M., & Gamoran, A. (2003). Discussion-Based

Approaches to Developing Understanding: Classroom Instruction and Student

Performance in Middle and High School English. American Educational

Research Journal, 40(3), 685–730.

Ives, Eugenia A. (2013), "iGeneration: The Social Cognitive Effects of Digital

Technology on Teenagers" . Graduate Master's Theses, Capstones, and

Culminating Projects. 92. https://doi.org/10.33015/dominican.edu/2013.edu.09

Larson, B.E. (2000). Classroom Discussion: A Method of Instruction and a Curriculum

Outcome. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16, 661-677.

Painter, M.. (1947). Oral Emphasis in the English Class. The English Journal, 36(7),

348–352. 

Peterka-Bonetta, J., Sindermann, C., Elhai, J. D., & Montag, C. (2019). Personality

Associations With Smartphone and Internet Use Disorder: A Comparison Study

Including Links to Impulsivity and Social Anxiety. Frontiers in public health, 7,

127. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00127

Saleem, Muniba & Anderson, Craig & Gentile, Douglas. (2012). Effects of Prosocial,

Neutral, and Violent Video Games on College Students' Affect. Aggressive

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