Good Practice Highlights, The University of Sheffield

Practical guide to facilitating classroom discussions

Inclusive teaching is a key strategic goal of the University of Sheffield. Moreover, ensuring students have equal access to learning opportunities whilst participating in Higher Education is an ethical priority. Toward this end, this guide offers practical tips to foster that most democratic, but often elusive, pedagogical technique: classroom discussion.

Dr Niall Docherty, Lecturer in Data, AI and Society

School of Information, Journalism and Communication

Context

In the literature, discussion has been shown to develop students’ oral communication skills (Dallimore et al., 2008), while also improving learning outcomes, performance in assessments, self-confidence, critical understanding, appreciation of diversity, and leadership skills (Huerta, 2007; Parker, 2003; Yoder, 2005; Walsh & Sattes, 2011; Walsh & Sattes, 2015). Discussion in class has been linked to an increased ability to retain information (McKeachie, 1999), heightened political tolerance and civic sensibility in students (Avery, 2002; Hahn, 2010; Hess & McAvoy, 2015), and an improved ability to articulate skills to employers (Wagner, 2010). However, it is also true that equal access to discussion in University settings is prey to the same prejudices that act as barriers to entry in other spheres of life, with gender, ethnicity, race, class, and language often inhibiting participation along marginalized lines (Caspi et al., 2008; Chen & Curdt-Christiansen, 2024; Howard et al., 2006; Johnson et al., 2011).

The value of discussion is clear, yet facilitating productive and inclusive student discussions in University is often overlooked in teacher training. It is also a common experience that many of our attempts to foster discussions fall flat. The memory of stony silences and awkward exchanges may bring a shiver down the spine. This guide seeks to confront this issue head on by providing some practical, adaptable and accessible activities to generate classroom discussion. It begins by establishing what makes a good discussion and moves onto a range of techniques to begin, generate, and maintain discussion for learners from diverse backgrounds in class.

Opening a discussion

A good topic of discussion must be:

arguable;
existing in the everyday world;
and move students beyond their previous interpretations and experiences. (Henning et al., 2008).

Opening a discussion is key toward this end. In your discussion prompts to students, here are some key priorities to keep in mind (Brookfield & Preskill, 2005):

Avoid ambiguity
Don’t lecture
Embrace silence
Don’t favour

The table below provides some techniques of how to kick things off. These techniques can be used for discussion groups of varying sizes (more on that below).

What is a good discussion?

This exercise usually works best at the start of a consistent block of classes, where discussion will be a key pedagogical method. Moreover, it is effective to create a shared community framework for participants in a relatively stable group.

Ask students to discuss in pairs or small groups about what makes a ‘good’ discussion. For instance, the environment, the participants, the liveliness, enjoyability etc.
After a time, ask students to report back to the wider group and write down what is raised.
Then ask students to return to their pairs/small groups and discuss what are barriers to a ‘good’ discussion. E.g. speaking over others, not listening, background noise etc.
Ask students to come up with some ground rules for a good discussion in pairs or in small groups, and share with the rest of the class.
Write them down, collate them, and share with the class in a follow up email or next session.

Establishing the value of discussion

It is important for students to make a link between the value of discussion and their own learning. At the start of a sustained teaching block that uses discussion as a pedagogical method, I like to begin with a quick in-class run down of the evidence behind the method. The content of these justificatory position statements is fluid, depending on the learning objectives of the module or the session in question. Please see these slides for an example of what this could look like.

Group size

Often, students find it less daunting to discuss in smaller groups of up to 6 participants, as opposed to the class as a whole (Brookfield & Preskill, 2005). As a rule of thumb, it is often productive to break a single, large group of students into smaller groups to begin with, where ideas can be formed in a low-risk way. From this, you can then invite the smaller groups to feedback to the wider group as a whole.

Here are some easy techniques to kick off discussions in smaller groups:

Buzz groups

Split the larger group into smaller ‘buzz groups’ of 3 or 4 students and ask them to reflect on the content of the lecture/reading, offering a few prompts on the screen:

What’s the most contentious thing you heard/read in the lecture/reading?
What’s the most important point made in the lecture/reading?
What question would you most like to have answered regarding the topic of the lecture/reading?
Of all the ideas and points you encountered in the lecture/reading, which is most obscure or ambiguous to you?

From this, after a certain time, invite students to share their ideas with the rest of the class.

Circle of voices

Provide a prompt for discussion. This could be a controversial statement, media object, a reading, a lecture slide etc.
Split students up into groups of 4-5, give a few minutes to reflect on the topic of discussion.
Invite students to go round in sequence and offer uninterrupted space for one person to speak while the other listens - the other people in the circle make notes.
After each student has said their piece, open up to a more free flowing conversation within the smaller groups only based on what the other people have said. This will invite students to respond to each other directly and encourage them to seek links between what they have said.
[Option to repeat steps 1-5 with a new prompt].
After a certain time (perhaps when the buzz in the room has died down), invite students to feedback to the wider group and identify links between what was discussed.

Hatful of quotes

Before the session, print off 5 or 6 (controversial/tasty) quotes from the texts/lecture and place complete sets into ‘hats’ (anything that can hold them).
Split students into groups of 4-5. Hand out a hat of quotes to each group. In turn, invite each member to pick a quote out and read it to the rest of the small group, making a comment on it and reflecting on its meaning. Invite others to comment, reply, or discuss the quote in more detail.
After all the quotes have been read in the different groups, bring the room back together. Then, put each quote up on the screen and ask the room to share their thoughts on each one.
This gives different members of the seminar a personal stake in what has been discussed and invites different people to contribute.

Listening Skills

Listening, obviously, is a crucial part of any discussion. The techniques below offer a way to practice and cultivate listening skills in class:

Active listening

[This is a good exercise to do early on in the semester, perhaps as a way to cultivate collegiality and goodwill in the class for the learning weeks ahead].

Pair students up, and ask them to assign the role of ‘speaker’ and ‘listener’.
The speaker will have five minutes to talk about a personal topic of the teacher’s choice. E.g. their hometown, their family, what they like/dislike about Sheffield, etc. Another good topic is to ask students their feelings toward the assessment for the module, their concerns, their hopes and so on.
The listener actively listens to what the speaker is saying. The success of the activity depends on the listener. Emphasise that the listener needs to demonstrate that they are listening. For this, it is helpful to ask the class what they think are the key signs of active listening. For example body language, eye contact, head nodding, paraphrasing of the speaker’s meaning, or echoing?
After establishing what ‘good’ listening looks like, the listener needs to use every resource at their disposal to show that her first priority is witnessing and understanding the speaker’s words. Asking questions is ok, but ask them sparingly. State that this activity can feel a little awkward, especially when you’re just parroting another person’s words, but emphasise the value of it from an interpersonal standpoint.
Switch roles and repeat the process for another 5 minutes.

Designated listener

Split class into smaller groups.
Provide a contentious statement related to the topic and ask each group to decide whether they are for or against it.
Ask each group to assign the role of a ‘designated listener’ to keep track of the key points, the thought processes, the disagreements and so on.
Once every group has decided, each designated listener will then report the decision back to the wider room, and explain the key reasons and thought process behind it.
Set up a for and against pole at two different points in the room
Invite individuals to ‘vote with their feet’, choosing the for and against pole respectively. Invite individuals to explain their position.
Repeat this a few times, with different statements and with different listeners.

Tips for the designated listener:

Listen to understand the words spoken rather than thinking about what to say next.
Strive to understand the point before either approving or criticizing.
Take note of points of agreement as well as disagreement within the group.
Raise questions with participants that help clarify and explain key points.
Raise questions with participants that extend and deepen the conversation.
Forget about what others in the group are feeling about the speaker’s comments.
Try to be aware of the speaker’s level of confidence and be ready to support him or her.

Think-Pair-Share (Mundelsee & Jurowski, 2021)

Think. Have students write a response to a prompt or a question. You can be creative with what this looks like. They can respond with words, with an image, with a song, with a video, with a quote, for example. This also works well in order to discuss assessments. E.g. What is worrying you most about the assessment? What are you most confident with about the assessment?
Pair. Invite students to pair up and share their response with each other.
Share. Reconvene the class and ask pairs to report back on their conversations.

As a variant, you could pair students up first and then ask them to provide a shared response together, which they then share with the rest of the group.

Group writing exercises

Being an active listener when facilitating classroom discussions is key to its success. Making links between discussion points, discussants, and offering contrasting provocations are all useful ways to keep the conversation going. To help with this, simply writing ideas down on a whiteboard is a way to keep track of the discussion as it emerges.

The following techniques are ways that allow students to use the simple practice of writing to a similar advantage:

Station to station

Establish writing stations in different parts of the room. Each station should have the means for students to write on a shared surface. For instance, you can use large sheets of paper, newsprint boards, or whiteboards.
Split the students into equal groups around each of the stations.
For each station, assign a prompt related to the topic. This could be a quote from the reading, a controversial statement, an image, etc. Invite the students to discuss the prompt and respond as a group by writing on the surface supplied.
After 5-10 mins (time allowing) signal that students should move to the next station along, and repeat the process. The key here is that students should respond to what the previous groups have written, responding to the prompt via the comments from the other groups. This can be questions, comments, or criticisms.
When every group has occupied each station, leaving remarks behind at all of them, ask students to break out of their groups and individually move around the room to read the comments on each station. Students can make their own remarks in response, questions, comments or criticisms.
Finally, come back together as a group to review each station, discussing key points, inviting feedback and wider discussion.

Four-Square Share

Ask students to prepare by reading a passage of text/video/blog/object related to the topic and writing a brief summary of the main ideas.
Split the room into groups of four.
One at a time, students share their summaries with other group members.
As each student speaks, others listen and take notes.
After all group members share, they engage in a short discussion, looking for common ideas across the group as well as pertinent ideas that were not previously mentioned.
Finally, each student individually writes a one or two-sentence summary, drawing relevant ideas from the other students.
Invite groups to share their summaries with the room, consider commonalities/divergences, and use them as the basis for wider discussion.

Pedagogically, this method can collect formative feedback related to three important skills: how well students independently understood the passage, listened to and understood one another, and incorporated ideas from others into their own final synthesis.

Digital collage

Groups of 5 or 6 are formed.
Students are invited to identify three or four of the most important themes or ideas from a previously assigned reading (10-20 mins - time allowing).
Once the themes or ideas are noted, groups have another 30 mins to put together a ‘digital collage’ that communicates at least some of these ideas. This digital collage can take the form of photos copy pasted from the internet, text boxes, graphs, visualisations, all blended together in a creative way. A simple google slide could work, photoshop may work for others, or Canva. The key is to encourage students to be creative and playful while maintaining an underlying seriousness about the ideas they want to communicate.
When all of the groups have completed their task, each group shares its slides/document with the teacher, who responds in their own way and invites questions from others in response.

Moving around the room

As we know, taking full advantage of the learning space is a way to connect learners, break down barriers and energize ideas.

These techniques are meant to cultivate that type of energy for learners:

People-Graph

Display a controversial statement to the room. After time for individual reflection, ask students to “take a stand” on a line or continuum that stretches from one end of the room to another, with Strongly Agree at one end and Strongly Disagree at the other. Students can stand at either end or somewhere along the line to represent their opinion.
After students have “taken their stand,” they gather with three to four students near them on the People-Graph and articulate their reasons for their position, preparing to share and discuss with the larger group.
After the small groups have had sufficient time to document and explain their positions, the teacher asks several of the groups to share with the entire class.
Repeat with a new statement.

[This method can be amended by having four corners of the room instead designated with Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree]

Think-Pair-Share-Cycles (Mundelsee & Jurowski, 2021)

Follow the Think-Pair-Share method outlined above
After one round has completed, ask students to find another partner in a different part of the class and repeat the process.

Data on display

Create four or five statements related to the topic that could generate discussion. Distribute them around the room, using large sheets of paper stuck to the walls or existing whiteboards in the room. The statements must be worded so that students can agree or disagree. E.g. ‘Parents should have 100% access to their children’s phones.’
Invite students to silently move around the room and rate their level of agreement, from 100% (strongly agree) to 0% (strongly disagree), and at 10% gradients in-between.
Then, by using sticky notes or a pen, students mark their level of agreement beside the percentage of choice. In effect, students are creating bar graphs that show the extent to which the class agrees with each statement. (See Figure 1. below, taken from Walsh & Sattes (2015)
The bar charts are meant to give an indication of class sentiment. The teacher can now ask follow up questions regarding the percentage scores, asking students to raise their hand if they voted for a certain percentage, asking them to explain their decision and so on.

Snowball Toss

Have students write a question related to the topic on a piece of paper. Ask them to think about something that is confusing to them, or something that they do not yet understand, but in question form.
Instruct students to then crumple their paper tightly into a compact "snowball."
On the count of three, all students stand up and toss their snowball gently into the air, aiming for the center of the room.After the toss, students immediately move to pick up the nearest snowball that is not their own.
Ask students to return to their seats and unroll the paper they retrieved.
Now, students read what was written on the paper and offer a brief response, answer, or further clarification directly onto the same paper. They should clearly mark it as a different response. Even if the student doesn’t know the answer for sure, ask them to try to offer some advice of some kind. E.g. read this, explore this, or look into this - anything will do other than ‘I don’t know’
Instruct students to repeat the snowball toss into the middle of the room.
After this, have students sit down with the last paper they picked up.
Facilitate the discussion by asking students to read the idea/question and the responses written on their paper. Perhaps ask those who wrote the answer and response to identify themselves and lead onto a broader discussion.

Keeping things going

Proper questions can keep the discussion going in larger settings. Here are some suggestions taken from Brookfield and Presskill (2005):

Questions that ask for more evidence

How do you know that?
What data is that claim based on?
What does the author say that supports your argument?
Where did you find that view expressed in the text?
What evidence would you give to someone who doubted your interpretation?

Questions that ask for more clarification

Can you put that another way?
What’s a good example of what you are talking about?
What do you mean by that?
Can you explain the term you just used?
Could you give a different illustration of your point?

Open questions

How and why
How do you think that data could be biased?
Why do you think that some datasets are biased?

Linking or extension questions

How does your comment link to what X was saying earlier?
Does your idea support or challenge the text?

Summary questions

What are the one or two most important ideas that emerged from this discussion?
What remains unresolved or contentious about this topic?
What do you understand better as a result of today’s discussion?
Based on our discussion today, what do we need to talk about next time if we’re to understand this issue better?
What key word or concept best captures our discussion today?

Supporting materials

Resources:

Inclusivity, Diversity and Widening Participation

Employability and Skills Development

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