Circle of Knowledge

Description

Circle of Knowledge is a discussion technique that aims to improve student comprehension of content through mass participation, deep focus on the topic, and critical thinking. Open with a thought-provoking question for students that is tied to the content and provide them with time to consider their thoughts about the question. Then, ask a focusing question that hones in on the essential theme to be discussed. Provide students time to refine their thinking and write down their initial thoughts. From there, begin moving the discussion forward, leveraging the techniques presented below to keep the discussion active and all students participating.

Why it works...

What sets Circle of Knowledge apart from other discussion techniques are its techniques for keeping the discussion beneficial.

• Participation Techniques
  • Encourage students to share their thoughts with a neighbor before making themselves vulnerable by sharing with the whole class.
  • Get students involved in various ways.
    • Take volunteers
    • Random names
    • Student-to-student questioning
    • Round robin (all students answer in turn)
    • Fist-to-five (all students)
    • Redirect (question to teacher becomes question to another student)
• Focus Techniques
  • Recording thinking through notes (students do this individually)
  • Record big ideas periodically (teacher does this on the board)
• Critical Thinking Techniques
  • Have students stop and think. This mitigates impulsiveness.
  • Use Q-SPACE technique (Strong, Hanson, & Silver, 1998)
    • Question - Pose the question.
    • Silence and wait time - Remain quiet for 3-5 seconds for processing.
    • Probing - Require students to support their answer.
    • Accepting - Take as many answers as you can. It communicates good things to kids.
    • Clarifying and correcting - Seek to refine and amend responses if it benefits the discussion.
    • Elaborating - Have students take the ideas presented and make generalized statements that synthesize the conclusions of the class.

Tech integration...

If the teacher deems it necessary, a great way to document and record student input and class conclusions during the discussion is through a shared Google Document. The teacher can serve as the recorder of information, or they can delegate the responsibility to a student that would perform the task well. All students can have edit access to the document if the teacher desires. Doing so will allow for students to record their input after it has been refined and presented to the class.