Hattie's Research Says...
Classroom Discussion refers to purposeful, structured conversations between students (and sometimes between students and the teacher) that promote deeper understanding of content, encourage higher-order thinking, and allow learners to construct meaning collaboratively.
In Hattie’s meta-analyses, classroom discussion has a very high effect size (~0.82) because it’s intentional, academically focused, and supported by clear norms and facilitation strategies.
Sentence Starters/Stems
Hattie's Research Says...
Hattie Connection: Supports Classroom Discussion (ES ~0.82), Scaffolding (ES ~0.82), Feedback (ES ~0.70)
Definition: Structured sentence openings that provide students with a linguistic starting point for expressing ideas, building arguments, or responding to prompts. They act as scaffolds to help students use academic language, organize thoughts, and participate confidently in oral or written communication.
Purpose:
Supports equitable participation by lowering barriers to starting a response.
Encourages the use of discipline-specific vocabulary and language structures.
Fosters deeper thinking by prompting elaboration, comparison, or justification.
Example Starters:
I agree with ___ because…
Another example of this is…
This reminds me of…
The evidence shows…