Group Work: How to Manage and Promote Good Discussions

There are many reasons students don't speak in discussion - a fear of looking foolish, mistrust of the teacher, racial and cultural suspicion, inadequate preparation and an introverted learning style are just some of these. Drawing on his acclaimed book by the same name, Stephen shares several different techniques for engaging students in discussions. He argues that without socialization into certain ways of conversing, student discussions quickly fall into predictable patterns in which a small number of students repeatedly claim the majority of discussion contributions. He considers typical discussion problems (such as too few students speaking, discussions going off track, discussion becoming a game of 'guess what the teacher thinks') and ways to respond to these. This Archived Guest Lecture contains many examples of the most successful techniques Stephen has used to encourage student participation. The full set of techniques and examples can be found in his book, Discussion as a Way of Teaching 2e. (Jossey-Bass, 2005).