Getting students to participate in a productive discussion can be a challenge, even for seasoned professors. Students often seem unprepared or simply shy. You pose a question and no one responds, as everyone stares at the floor or ceiling, avoiding eye contact. Or the two students who are always interested in speaking once again want the floor (to the relief or disapproval of everyone else). Getting students to talk is one thing; getting them to learn from the discussion is quite another.

While lectures can effectively present information and concepts in a well organized fashion, they do not give us useful immediate feedback on whether students are learning the material properly; for that we must eventually rely on tests or quizzes or papers. But discussions, while less useful as ways of communicating quantities of information, highlight student learning--whether students are able to understand information, apply it, analyze or evaluate it. Participating in discussion forces students to think critically and recognize the complexity of issues and ideas.

Contrary to what some novice teachers might think, preparing for good classroom discussions can take as much time and thought as preparing lectures (even though the outcome can not be as controlled). And contrary to what many novice teachers do, good classroom discussions don't start in the classroom but begin long before the class convenes; that is, students need to be prepared for discussion just as much as does the instructor. The first important tip on leading good discussions is designing the course so that students come fully prepared to participate.

This can be done in a variety of ways; for example, by asking students to submit something in writing to a listserv or discussion board a day or two before the class meets (perhaps their own questions, or their response to a question you pose, or a summary of a text). Or students can be told in advance that they will have to argue a certain position (pro or con) on a topic; or they can be paired or put in teams to open the class with a short summary of a reading and then highlight two or three of the most significant questions or problems that it raised. If students have to think of what they might contribute to discussion in advance of the class, they'll be more interested in and able to participate--even the shy students.

In preparing for productive classroom discussions, consider the following suggestions:

*Identify the goals for the discussion for yourself and for the students*Explain the ground rules and expectations for discussion early in the semester*Listen carefully and be prepared to teach students how to listen to each other*Paraphrase student comments and offer positive feedback*Give students time to think-get comfortable with silences*Start class with a short writing exercise that students then exchange and discuss*Summarize class discussion (or assign this task to specific students), highlighting what's been accomplished and what still needs to be clarified*Ask students to respond to the discussion by posting to a discussion group or through a reflective paper that synthesizes what they've learned.

For more information on discussion leading, see the following:

William E. Cashin and Philip C. McKnight, Improving Discussions, Idea Paper 15
http://www.idea.ksu.edu/products/Papers.html

Barbara Gross Davis, Lynn Wood, and Robert C. Wilson, A Berkeley Compendium of Suggestions for Teaching with Excellence. See Section 10: Encouraging Class Discussion.
http://teaching.berkeley.edu/compendium/

Barbara Gross Davis, Tools for Teaching, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1993. Several chapters, including Chapter 9, "Encouraging Student Participation in Discussion," are available at http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/teaching.html

C. Roland Christensen, David A. Garvin, and Ann Sweet (eds.). Education for Judgment: The Artistry of Discussion Leadership. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. 1991.

Stephen D. Brookfield and Stephen Preskill. Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1999.

The books listed above may be borrowed from the Faculty Development Center.

Jack Prostko is director of the Faculty Development Center.