Discussion as a Way of Teaching

The purpose of discussion is only partly to help students have a more informed understanding about the subject at hand; it more-so to have students engage in critique while enhancing their self-awareness, creating an appreciation for diverse opinions, and for you as the teacher to encourage students to make informed decisions and take action within their community.  Your goal as a teacher is to foster a place where students feel safe to vocalize their opinions, especially if they differ from the group. When we are able to at least understand where someone else has come from, maybe because of a personal experience or due to their background, it allows for open-mindedness and promotes human growth. We want to take our students, and transform their “they” mindset to “we” as often as possible.

I want to soak up every inch of pedagogical approach that I can. I have not taken any education classes in college until now, and so it fascinates me to read why things as small as “discussion as a way of teaching,” which I feel is so innate but clearly not easy to get students to engage in, is important to cultivate in the classroom. As a teacher, you are helping students to develop empathy, sympathy, and understanding to situations that may not touch them or circumstances they may not understand because it does not directly affect them. This can be hard for several reasons and on many levels.  However, the author discusses nine practices that not only we as teachers should be able to name and learn, but that we should have our future students be able to do the same, in order to have productive and educated discussions.

Finding ways to use discussion as a way to gently open minds, or at the very least, show students how to disagree with a viewpoint in a hospitable way, is greatly reading your students for their future and preparing them to enter into the world outside of their comfort zone. It is clear that, sometimes your class discussions will not go the way you want them to. However, discussion is a constant in the classroom, and by learning how to go with the flow, researching your students, and creating the conditions; you can only continue to improve its usefulness for learning. This will absolutely be something I will always be trying to implement and work into my own classroom, on a daily basis.