Hierarchic: 4 Main Ideas

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Discussion Strategies
Main idea Main idea

Is about

Discussion is an instructional strategy that involves students sharing ideas about a common topic; it emphasizes student-student interaction and can be combined into group work and cooperative learning.
Main idea Main idea

Planning
Poorly planned discussions ca n become meaningless and a waste of time. More effective topics are controversial or allow for difference interpretations. Least effective topics are problem solving because only one conclusion can be reached. Allow students to be more analytical by hearing different perspectives. Encourage critical thinking by expecting students to explain their answer. Improve social skills. Its imperative that students know the material and have prior knowledge before they can be expected to discuss a topic. Have a thought out plan to get students from point A to point B. If you open the room up to full discussion without giving the students time to gather thoughts and discuss in small groups it will be chaos.

Implementing

Assessment

Motivation

First, the teacher has to present the topic for discussion. This attracts the students attention, provides a focus for the discussion and requires them to recall their background knowledge. Then, the students explore the topic and take a position. This promotes everyones involvement, and gets them thinking critically to reach a deeper understanding. Finally, you must summarize the discussion by focusing on points of agreement and disagreement.

Several things have to be assessed for this topic. Did the students understand the content, did they think critically, and did it build their social capabilities? The content and critical thinking can be assessed through tests and essays. The social aspect will be tested by their discussions and how effective they are at interacting with one another.

The students are motivated by themselves and each other. They are motivated to learn the content and think critically so that they can participate in class discussions. They are also motivated by each other because no one wasnts to be left out. So they will feed off of each others enthusiasm about the topic and discussion.

So what? What is important to understand about this?

Discussion is a strategy where students share ideas about a topic. Discussion requires gaining knowledge of the content, encourages critical thinking, and involves social interaction. Students are able to gain a deeper understanding of the topic because they have thought it through and have heard other perspectives and were able to reach complex conclusions.