Lecture NO 39

General Methods of Teaching

DISCUSSION METHOD
What is Discussion?

 Discussion
A teaching method that relies on verbal
exchange of ideas among students and the
teachers.
Overview of Classroom
Discussion
 When experienced teachers refer to classroom
discussions, they characterize them by students
and teachers talking about academic materials
and by students willingly displaying their
thinking processes publicly.
 The primary instructional goals of a discussion
lesson are to improve student thinking, to
promote involvement and engagement in
academic materials and to learn important
communication and thinking skills.
Theoretical Foundations

 Most classroom discourse proceeds at too

rapid a pace. Teachers can obtain better
classroom discourse by slowing down the
pace and giving themselves and their
students opportunities to think before they
respond. Researcher used the word discourse
for discussion method.
Learning environment for a
useful discussion
 In general, discussion and classroom discourse
patterns can be improved if teachers slow the pace
and use methods to broaden participation and if they
teach students to try to understand one another and
have high interpersonal regard for each other’s ideas
and feelings.
 Teaching students four specific interpersonal
communication skills (paraphrasing, behavior
description, feeling description and impression
checking) can enhance the quality of classroom
discourse and students’ regard for each other.
 Teacher should respond with dignity to the
students’ ideas. They should help the
students extend their ideas by seeking
clarification, getting students to consider
alternative ideas and labeling students’
thinking processes. Channelizing students
responses are very important. Teacher role is
like a facilitator.
How to plan and use Classroom
Discussion
 An important planning task for a discussion lesson is
deciding on which approach to use. There are several
kinds of discussions. Major approaches include using
discussion in conjunction with other teaching
models; recitation discussions; discovery or inquiry
discussions and discussions to clarify values and
share personal experiences.
 Other important planning tasks for teachers to
consider include determining the purposes of the
discussion; and determining the type of questions to
ask.
 Placing students in circles or using U-shaped
seating arrangements facilitates classroom
discussions. Socratic method is basically a
discussion method. It is also called dialogic
method. We can develop knowledge through
this method.
 Primary tasks for teachers as they conduct a discussion
consists of focusing the discussion; keeping the discussion
on track; keeping a record of the discussion; listening to
students ideas and providing appropriate wait time. Wait
time is thinking time. Question should be directive to the
whole class. Than teacher should take a pause and
indicate a student to answer the question. Teacher must
give his feedback before moving on to the next student or
question. The purpose of discussion is not only giving the
information but to generate the thinking skills. The most
important thing in thinking skills is to provide the wait
time.
 Teacher must be aware of gender discourse
differences as well as those that stem from
race and class. To be effective, they must
adapt discussion to meet the diverse
language patterns of their students. Teacher
needs to know about the diversity in the
class.
IRE or Recitation Script

 Initiate – Respond – Evaluate (IRE) discourse pattern.

 The IRE pattern has been labeled a “ monologic

discourse pattern” (Alexander, 2006), in which
teachers take turns at will decide on what topics are
important to discuss, decide who will talk and for how
long, and interject their responses and interpretations
controlling the pace and direction of the discussion.
This is known as teacher centered discussion.
 Teacher’s talk time is more than 50% of students talk
time.
Dialogic Discussion

 Dialogic discussion also called as interactive

discussion. This has come from Socrates
method. In second script there was dialogue.
First script is monologic because there was a
lot of teacher control.
 In this interaction, students produce a “chain of
utterances” (Nystrand, 2006) where they are able
to talk without interruption or re-direction from
the teacher. Students listen and respond to one
another as well as the teacher. In addition, the
teacher responds to the students’ ideas rather
than the students simply answering a series of
questions asked by the teacher. Dialogic
discussion promote divergent thinking. Monologic
discussion promotes convergent thinking.
Syntax of classroom
discussion
 Phase 1: clarify aims and establish set
 Phase 2: focus the discussion (rules, issue,
situation)
 Phase 3: hold the discussion
 Phase 4: end the discussion
 Phase 5: debrief the discussion (examining
own thinking processes)