Let's discuss discussions

By Gayle Golden 

Class discussions are great, aren't they?
Except....on those days when students aren't always in sync with your lesson plan. Maybe your well-crafted questions just hang in the air, met with silence and wide-eyed stares. Or maybe your classroom conversations are dominated by one or two eager speakers who always raise their hands, crowding out the introverts who have points to make but who just can't seem to get into the conversation.

How do you manage those moments?

To help with this question, I decided to hold a mini discussion, via interview and email, among three HSJMC faculty who have been hosting classroom conversations for years. Everyone has some ideas for getting discussions going. Here are a few:

Scott Libin

Ask questions early and often
Scott Libin, a senior fellow who teaches courses in broadcast journalism as well as ethics and, most lately, the large-enrollment Jour 1001 class, says he never waits more than a few minutes into a class to get students talking. He begins asking question soon -- even on behalf of guest speakers. The goal is to help students hear that discussion is a normal part of the classroom experience. "The more voices they hear, the more permission they have to speak themselves," he says.



Get students to lead discussion
Associate Professor Giovanna Dell'Orto, who teaches courses in history of journalism and media communication, thinks it's useful to put students in the role of teacher when it comes to developing questions for discussion.

Giovanna Dell'Orto

In her classes, she will randomly assign students to groups of three to five and ask them to select a recent news story that reminds them of what they're discussing in class that week. The students will need to come up with a set of questions to lead the discussions.

That peer-to-peer interaction empowers students to consider what they want and need to learn from the material. In turn, the students who are receiving the questions do so more receptively.  "It seems to work really well, and even the most heated conversations are quite diverse and respectful," Dell'Orto says.


Empower students
Associate Professor Chris Ison, HSJMC Director of Undergraduate Studies who teaches several professional journalism courses as well as ethics, says he thinks it's important students learn their opinions are as valid as anyone else's, including those of professionals.

Chris Ison

So when his students are discussing news judgment, he makes a point of saying he sometimes disagrees with how local newspapers prioritize news on the front pages. That gives students permission to disagree with those decisions. "And if I agree with them, that empowers them even more," he says.

 When students realize the pros aren't perfect, they become less shy about giving their point of view. "It works even better if I can find times when they can convince me I'm wrong."



Take advantage of extroverts (sometimes)
Discussions are sometimes overrun by extroverts who are eager to respond to every question and often make it hard for others to speak. In his large class of 200, Libin has found a way to use those extroverts to drive the discussion for everyone. Instead of worrying about calling on others, he sometimes drills even more into the extroverts' points and has discovered that strategy quickly sparks a lively discussion in the class. "From there," he says, "the challenge becomes managing the conversation."

Participating in discussions isn't comfortable for every student. Some students simply don't talk much in class, but that doesn't mean they're checked out. "Sometimes students who say the least are listening the most," Libin says. For those students -- and you will learn who they are -- it's important not to call on them just to force their engagement, although if you see them eager to make a point it's good to notice that expression and to encourage them to speak up.


Ask open-ended and self-reflective questions
The questions Libin asks are usually simple and often personally directed. They might ask the student to reflect on how a point in the lecture resonates with students' own experience. That's an open-ended way of engaging students with material, giving permission for everyone to dive in no matter the experience level. Other helpful questions are those that begin with "how" or "why," which honestly seek an answer from the student that you would not expect.

Ison adds that he gets a better result if he asks a question not as a "test" but rather because he's genuinely puzzled. "I can ask them to tell me if a photo on the front page is good or bad, which puts them on the spot, thinking there's a right answer, or I can say: 'I'm not sure how I feel about publishing this photo. At first I thought it was too graphic, but then I wondered if I'm just getting soft in my old age. Set me right, would you?'"


Other tips (my own discussion bust here)
Because I'm hosting this discussion, I can give myself few last words (although all the above tips are pretty invaluable and stand on their own, frankly). I would just add a few extras:

• When class involves a reading, develop a way for students to ask questions about it before class, such as through a Drive document. That will help you see what's on students' minds and help frame the discussion.
• Don't be afraid of silences. When you ask a question, students need time to think. If the question isn't clear, sometimes students will ask for clarification. That's fine. Give it to them. But don't think the silence means you have failed to engage them entirely. They may just need time to think. 
• When someone has raised a point that seems unusual, let students react to it. Don't dismiss it or respond to it yourself immediately. You might be surprised at what comes from the discussion.
• Be human. Discussions are conversations. They are about exchanging ideas, communicating, understanding, affirming and discovering. Sometimes those attributes are more important than the actual substance of what gets discussed.

What are you doing to stimulate discussions in your course? If you have a good idea, post it below. And as usual, if you have a question or a comment for ProActive Teaching, please post one below or email me at ggolden@umn.edu.