A User's Manual for Student-Led Discussion
Gale Rhodes, Professor of Chemistry, University of Southern Maine
Robert Schaible, Associate Professor of Arts and Humanities, Lewiston-Auburn College
We published a version of this manual in"Talking students/listening
teachers: The student-led discussion." Robert Schaible and Gale Rhodes, Issues
& Inquiry in College Teaching & Learning, 15, 44, 1992, and in
"Talking students, listening teachers: A user's manual for student-led
discussion." W.G. Rhodes and Robert Schaible, in The Joy of Learning, Willard
Callender, editor. Portland, Maine: University of Southern Maine Publications Office,
89-98, 1990.
You may use and distribute this version of the manual if you obtain
permission from Gale Rhodes (rhodes@usm.maine.edu), and agree to the following conditions:
1) You will not sell it for more than copying costs, nor include it in a commercial
publication; 2) you will give credit to the authors, listing their names and affilitations
on the first page; and 3) you will submit a brief report each year (by e-mail if your
wish), in which you tell us the nature of the courses in which you use the manual, your
experience with this method, and the adaptions you make for use in your courses. Here's why we make these requests.
Introduction
We have developed a manual suggesting rules and useful
tools for student-led discussion in the format we used in two interdisciplinary courses at
the University of Southern Maine: 1) Metaphor and Myth in Science and Literature and 2)
Life and Literature After Darwin. Our format evolved from traditional discussion methods
as we sought more effective means to achieve one of the primary goals of our courses: to
help students learn to form, articulate, and defend opinions in open discussion. Students
develop their opinions as they analyze and criticize the texts and as they search for
concepts, issues, and themes that connect the texts and the disparate disciplines that are
represented in these courses.
Our format, in brief, is as follows. We ask all students to prepare for each
discussion as if they plan to serve as discussion leader. Obviously, a student who
prepares to lead discussion is well prepared to participate. Then at the beginning of each
class, we pick a discussion leader and two supporters at random and turn the class over to
the students: faculty do not contribute to discussion until near the end of the first half
of the period. Instead, we listen, attempting to learn the students' level of
understanding of the material, and to see which issues are of compelling interest to them.
Near the midpoint of the period, we enter the discussion, but do not take it over. We try
to take advantage of what we heard in the first half in order to help students attain a
deeper understanding of the material and to make connections across the breadth of the
course. In shaping discussions around the issues of genuine interest to students, we aim
to bolster their confidence that they can read and analyze complex material on their own.
We treat our courses, in effect, as experimental arenas (or labs) in which
careful reading, discussion, and persuasion are valued more highly than power and
authority as ways of constructing truth and meaning in a pluralistic world. In so doing,
we are developing a pedagogy that is consistent with postmodern theories of knowing,
according to which no one speaks from a privileged podium and any truth claim is viewed as
contingent--i.e., as constructed within and valid for a particular interpretive community.
We are also responding to widespread criticism, found most notably in the report by the
prestigious Carnegie Commission on Higher Education (1987), that undergraduate education
is not adequately teaching the skills of critical thinking.
In any course, it is crucial to find a format appropriate to the course
goals. Even if our format seems particularly apt for your course, do not adopt it blindly.
Be willing to adjust rules on the fly if you see a variation that will sharpen the aim at
your particular goals. Even if our format seems particularly inappropriate for your
course, we urge you at least to read through the manual with your classes in mind; perhaps
a specific rule or suggestion will trigger useful ideas that will make your own efforts
more successful.
The first section of the manual contains the rules we follow, in the form of
instructions to the students and faculty. The second section presents the instructions we
give our students on how to lead discussion in our format, where the leader is not an
expert, but has prepared in the same way as all other participants. This guide contains
suggestions that may be useful to anyone who leads or participates in discussions. In the
third section, we suggest reasons why our method leads to impressive, enthusiastic student
participation, and why we find it so gratifying.
User's Manual SECTION 1: THE RULES
I. At the beginning of the semester
A. Students:
1) Purchase all the books and materials for the course. The order of
topics in the syllabus may change, so texts scheduled for use later in the semester may be
assigned earlier.
2) Read the syllabus and course guidelines carefully, listen to the
faculty presentation on the first day of class, and ask questions to be sure you
understand the course format. You are expected to participate at some meaningful level in
class discussions. If you are uneasy about this requirement and tempted to drop, please
stick around for two or three discussions. You will probably find them less frightening
than you anticipate.
B) Faculty:
1) Provide a syllabus that describes the course goals and format in
detail.
2) Provide instructions on how to lead discussions under this format.
(See Section 2 of this manual.)
3) At the first meeting, present an overview of the course and discuss
the format. Try to allay the fears of students who might drop the course as soon as they
understand that they must take such an active role in class.
4) Follow these general logistics:
a) Seat students
in a circle.
b) Make a seating
chart and use it to learn student names.
c) Copy the
seating chart for students so that they learn each other's names.
d) Provide a list
of names and phone numbers of students and faculty to help students get assignments when
they miss a class.
II. Before each class
A. Students:
1) Read and study the assignment made at the end of the previous class.
2) Formulate and write down four or five discussion questions based upon
the assigned reading.
3) On the assumption that you will lead the day's discussion, write a
brief (less than 5-minute) opening statement about the assignment. Your statement should
set the stage for, and end by raising, one or more of your discussion questions.
B. Faculty:
1) Read the assignment and study related supplementary sources.
2) List concepts and issues likely to interest the students, as well as
those the students are likely to find difficult.
3) Collect materials and formulate examples and illustrations that may be
useful in helping the students with the concepts and issues listed in 2), above.
4) If team teaching, meet approximately one hour before class to discuss
your expectations for the discussion, and to plan strategy for taking advantage of student
interest in or difficulty with specific concepts. Warm up by discussing important topics.
5) Be willing to go to class with some questions and issues only
partially resolved and clarified in your own mind, so that you can be an authentic seeker
of knowledge during at least some of the discussion.
III. During class
A. Students:
1) Listen to the introduction by the designated discussion leader and
consider the discussion question(s) or issue(s) he or she raises.
2) Discuss the issues raised, keeping to the subject of the readings,
attempting -- preferably in this order -- to analyze, criticize, and connect:
a) Analyze the readings to gain a deeper understanding of difficult
concepts, examples, the author's position, and the author's arguments.
b) Criticize the readings, articulating and defending personal opinions
about the adequacy of the author's presentation and arguments.
c) Connect the issues you have analyzed and criticized to material of
previous assignments in order to discern broader themes, similar concepts, and comparable
or contrasting opinions.
3) As you participate, make good use of the text, at times calling
attention to specific passages relevant to the issue at hand. When working with such a
passage, allow time for others in the class to locate it and then read it aloud.
4) Ignore faculty during their period of enforced silence. Direct your
attention to other students and regard faculty as recording secretaries on hand to take
down information for use later in discussion.
5) Continue the student-led discussion with the same goals after faculty
have joined in, using the faculty as needed to provide examples, explanations, and/or
alternative positions.
6) Take brief notes of points and examples that deepen your
understanding; opinions that differ from your own; and arguments that you find helpful,
convincing, or worth trying to refute. These notes may be useful when you want to
contribute to discussion, when you formulate study questions for subsequent classes, or
when you write papers. Do not, however, allow note-taking to cause you to lose the thread
of the discussion.
B. Faculty:
1) At the beginning of class, select, completely at random, a discussion
leader and two back-ups or supporters for the leader from among the students present.
2) For at least 40% of the period (20 minutes out of 50 or 30 minutes out
of 75), maintain complete silence (except perhaps to ask for page references when students
refer to specific passages in the readings).
3) Provide no visual or audible responses to what you hear, and avoid
making eye contact with students as they talk.
4) Specifying speakers by name, take notes on important issues raised in
discussion, with an eye toward using this information later in discussion:
a) Note the level of mastery of the assigned material, and be willing to
discard your often-errant assumptions of where the students' difficulties might lie and
thus to become better prepared to meet them at their level.
b) Note the issues that grip the students, for student interest can often
make an issue more productive.
c) Note issues that are discarded before students have examined them as
thoroughly as the readings allow. You may want to resurrect these issues after you enter
the discussion.
d) Note whether later lecture or faculty-led discussion might efficiently
resolve peripheral or conceptual problems and help students focus on central issues.
e) Note whether examples might clarify difficult concepts. (Recall
instruction II.B.3: you should be armed with passages from other readings and helpful
illustrations that you can present if appropriate.)
5) Near the end of the period of enforced silence, look for a way to
enter discussion naturally and helpfully, without taking charge or altering the tenor of
the discussion. Forcible entry of faculty into discussion erodes the students' confidence
that they can make useful progress on their own. Therefore, as you approach your time,
look for an interesting place to join in the moving stream of ideas. When that stream
trickles out, look back to earlier issues that need more attention. Remember that, even
after the period of enforced silence, the discussion ideally is still student-led. You can
encourage students to continue speaking to each other by avoiding prolonged eye contact,
even when a student is responding to your own question.
6) Provide, as requested by the students or as you deem useful, examples
or augmenting material, not so much to add material to the course, but instead to clarify
or to suggest directions in which important issues might lead.
7) Help the students to make connections and to find in the earlier
discussion contrasting views that are fruitful to discuss further.
8) Try to cite students by name when returning to ideas they brought up
in the earlier discussion. When possible, quote them directly from your notes, asking them
if you are reporting their comments accurately.
IV. After class
A. Students (in groups of acquaintances, if possible)
Spend a few minutes reflecting on the preceding discussion, perhaps jotting
down notes (or amplifying notes made in class) of points that increased your understanding
of the readings, and that may be useful in preparing for the next discussion or writing
the next paper. Especially, take note of arguments that interested or surprised you.
B. Faculty (together, if team teaching)
1) Reflect upon the preceding discussion, noting issues that were deeply
explored and open issues that might be carried further.
2) Look ahead to future readings and consider whether to alter the order
of assignments in order to pursue an open issue sooner than the current plan specifies, or
in order to juxtapose future subjects fruitfully with open issues.
3) Recall from the preceding discussion any students who may have
participated for the first time and consider strategies to affirm their efforts and
encourage further participation.
SECTION 2: HOW TO LEAD DISCUSSION
Most students have never led a discussion. It is normal to be
somewhat fearful about your first try. Most of us (including teachers) are afraid we'll be
embarrassed by saying something wrong, being contradicted, or running out of things to
say. Here are some suggestions to help you overcome your fears, prepare, get the
discussion started, and sustain it. These suggestions apply specifically to the kinds of
discussions we wish to have in this course, but you may find them useful any time you are
faced with leading a discussion group.
Preparing
To lead a discussion, you must be familiar with the assigned
material. "Familiar with" is, we believe, just the right phrase. You need not
have mastered the material; after all, a goal of discussion is to move everyone towards
mastery, that is, to improve everyone's (even the leader's) understanding. To prepare for
discussion (leadership or participation), first read and study the assignment, underlining
the more important or interesting points, and making notes in the margins. Then think
about and write down some of the main issues that the author raises and a few questions
pertinent to the issues. (Examples: 1) The author is trying to show how indirect our
knowledge is. How does the author support this contention? 2) The author is explaining how
evolution produces new traits. How do new traits appear? Explain the specific examples she
uses. 3) This is a novel about the breakdown of a marriage. What factors contribute to its
failure?
If you can come up with a handful of questions, you're in good shape.
Remember, everyone else in the class is formulating such questions: you can take advantage
of their work to make your job easier. (More on this later.)
But what if you are not asked to lead? Is this work wasted? Certainly not;
you are now very well prepared to participate as someone else leads. With everyone
prepared to lead, everyone is also prepared to discuss, and lively discussions will almost
always ensue.
Getting Started
Class has started and your name has been drawn from the hat. How
do you begin? Simply clear your throat and read (or better, present) your prepared
statement. End by asking the first question or asking for discussion of the first issue on
your list. Before you know it, the hard part -- getting started -- is done.
One word of caution: Start out on a positive note. Avoid beginning with an
apology for being poorly prepared or for finding the reading difficult. Treat the day's
topic as having real value. Openers like "I didn't get much out of this" or
"I don't agree with anything the author said" will stifle, rather then promote,
discussion. If you treat the readings as worthwhile, your classmates will follow your
lead, join you in examining the day's assignment, and thus make your job easier.
Sustaining Discussion
Discussions, like sleepy horses, need some urging to keep them
moving. A discussion leader can often keep things moving with only modest prodding, giving
the class its head when things are going well. Of course, if you can contribute something
useful, do so; but other kinds of comments or actions on your part can sustain the
discussion just as well as an injection of insight. Here are some suggestions:
1) Get students to talk to each other. Ask for a response to the most
recent comments. (Anyone have a response to Clara's opinion?) Or ask a specific student to
respond. (Clara, do you agree with Ralph?)
2) Get students to defend or explain their opinions. (Marvin why do you
say that? What's your evidence or reasoning?)
3) Encourage an exploration of differing points of view. When you hear
conflicting views, point them out and get the holders of those views to discuss their
differences. Perhaps ask a third person to sum up the two positions.
4) Keep the class on the subject. If you are even halfway familiar with
the material, you know when the discussion is no longer connected to it. Just say so.
(We've gotten pretty far from the readings; let's get back on the subject.) Or simply
consult your list of questions. Any sensible response to one of your questions is bound to
be pertinent.
5) Point to a particular passage in the text relevant to a comment made
by one person, or to a discussion among several. This might be a passage that challenges,
or sums up and confirms, the views being expressed.
6) Don't fill every silence with your own voice. Any discussion will
lapse occasionally. It is not your job as leader to avoid all silence. Some quiet periods
are productive. Students who are not so quick to speak will frequently get the chance they
need when others are quiet. If the silence gets too heavy, take advantage of the other
students' lists of questions. (Ginny, give us one of the questions you brought to class.)
Remember, as discussion leader you do not have to be the brains of the whole
outfit. You are not expected to know it all; the class is full of students who have read
the same assignment that you read. Your job is to give them a chance to talk about it and
thus give others the benefits of their thinking. On the other hand, if any one student
begins to do all the talking, gently correct this problem by bringing other students into
the discussion. You are there to steer, to keep the beast reasonably near the center of
the path, by pulling a rein when needed, by loosening the reins when it keeps to the
trail, by reining it in when it threatens to gallop away to greener subjects. If students
are talking to each other about the reading material, things are going well; relax,
listen, and contribute when you can.
The Goals of Discussion
Discussion should lead to two results. First, we want analysis and
clarification of the material. What is the author saying? What is the author's intended
meaning of key words in the text? What is fact and what is the author's opinion? With what
evidence does the author support opinions? What do you see as the theme of this story,
poem, or play? What elements contribute to this theme?
Second, we want response to, and criticism of, the author's work. What do you
think of the author's opinion? Is the evidence or reasoning convincing? What other
opinions are possible? Compare your opinion with that of the author. How does this poem
make you feel? Why? What connections (harmonies or conflicts) do you find between this
author's ideas and those of other thinkers we have studied?
It is best to attack these two tasks, analysis and criticism, in the order
described; after all, we must understand possible readings of the work before we can
properly respond or criticize. As discussion leader, you will find that students want to
express opinions before doing anything else. Keep pulling the class toward clarification
of the readings. The more you accomplish here, the more meaningful and pertinent the
criticisms and other responses will be. To reiterate, the discussion will swing naturally
toward opinion, just as the horse turns naturally toward home. Keep pulling toward
clarification (What does the author mean by...? What is a possible reading of...?) and you
will achieve good balance between analysis and criticism.
Finally, we want you to enjoy the discussions. Keep this in mind whenever
differences of opinion arise. It's okay to defend your beliefs, but it is also okay to be
wrong, to concede a point, to change your mind. A mind that never changes is about as
useful as a window stuck in one position. The main object of argument is not to win, but
to know the pleasure of real thinking and learning.
SECTION 3: THE REWARDS OF STUDENT-LED DISCUSSION
In practice our method has brought the best and most enjoyable
discussions we have ever held in any of our courses. In what ways do we and our students
find this approach gratifying, and what accounts for the gratification?
I. As faculty, we recognize the importance, as well as the pleasure, of
becoming co-learners with our students.
A. We become co-learners by giving up the role of authority figures who
reign over our students.
B. We become co-learners because we willingly go to class to learn, with
issues unresolved in our own minds so that there is a real opportunity for students to see
us learn and help us learn.
C. We become co-learners because we can never be sure in what direction
the discussion will go and thus surprises are more likely: issues we have not already
thought through are more likely to arise and lead us or free us to think freshly about a
text or subject we think we have thoroughly explored and tracked.
D. We become co-learners because students feel more free to share their
thoughts and ideas with us in an environment where students are respected as thinkers and
learners.
II) Students become empowered as learners.
A. Students are empowered because they sense the respect we have for them
as they accept the responsibilities we offer to them.
B. Students are empowered because they discover that they can indeed, on
their own, analyze difficult texts, explore issues, and articulate ideas -- activities
traditionally reserved for the authority of the lecture or the faculty-structured
discussion.
C. Students are empowered because they experience the gratification of
being cited or quoted as part of a serious intellectual inquiry.
D. Students are empowered because they experience the excitement and
gratification of freely discussing and debating ideas on nearly level ground with persons
traditionally thought to speak only from a position of power.
E. Students are empowered by the simple act of learning to be prepared
for every class. Probably the most important foundation for good discussion is a means of
assuring that all participants read a specific assignment and think at length about the
concepts and issued raised therein. The possibility of being chosen to lead discussion
provides the impetus for such preparation.
Conclusion
We do not claim that this method of teaching is easy or
that it is free of frustrations and disappointments. It requires extensive preparation,
patience, tact, agility of thought, and a willingness to yield the privilege of always
having the final word. Discussions will sometimes be marked by stammering, confusion, and
error. We are convinced, however, that to stammer, to be confused, and to err are familiar
and invaluable to all who learn to think critically and construct meaning for themselves.
Furthermore, experience has taught us that much more often than not, students are very
capable indeed of doing work we formerly thought impossible without our shepherding
interference.
Considering it the primary function of the university to preserve "the
connection between knowledge and the zest of life (p.93)," Alfred North Whitehead
(1929) wrote, "For successful education there must always be a certain freshness in
the knowledge dealt with.ÉKnowledge does not keep any better than fish.Éit must come to
students, as it were, just drawn out of the sea and with the freshness of its immediate
importance." We agree, and suggest that when students themselves do the fishing,
drawing knowledge out of the sea of their own careful reading and lively deliberations,
such knowledge is fresher and tastier than any caught, scaled, prepared, and then served
up by the teacher. And if, as Bruce Wilshire (1990) asserts, "Education involves . .
. making sense of things together" (p.24), then a format that stresses talking among
students and faculty, as opposed to talking at students by faculty, is surely the very
essence of what education should and can be.
References
1. Boyer, E. (1987). College: The Undergraduate Experience in America.
New York: Harper and Row.
2. Whitehead, A. (1929). The Aim of Education and Other Essays. New York:
Macmillan.
3. Wilshire, B. (1990) The Moral Collapse of the University:
Professionalism, Purity, and Alienation. Albany: State University of New York Press.
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