Classroom Discussion (d=0.82)

Classroom discussion is a method of teaching, that involves the entire class in a discussion. The teacher stops lecturing and students get together as a class to discuss an important issue. Classroom discussion allows students to improve communication skills by voicing their opinions and thoughts.

Teachers also benefit from classroom discussion as it allows them to see if students have learnt the concepts that are being taught. Moreover, a classroom discussion creates an environment where everyone learns from each other. In this video by Heather Joseph-Witham you can see how to lead a classroom discussion effectively.

Examples for an effective classroom discussion: Create a series of questions for the students to think about. Allocate enough time in the lesson for an elaborate discussion. Make sure that students can freely express their opinion without being laughed at or ridiculed. You can find helpful tips on planning, moderating and reflecting on classroom discussion in a paper by William E. Cashin (PDF).

Overview

With a 0.82 effect size, a student has the potential of two years academic growth in half the time.

Class discussions are so routine a practice in schools that they hardly seem to warrant advocacy. They are used primarily as a tactic to raise student engagement, often as an “ice-breaker” activity or to activate students’ prior knowledge around new content.

But class discussions can also be sources of rich, qualitative data—data that allow teachers to understand the thinking of their students more closely and determine if there are information processing errors that need instructional intervention, the more immediate the better.

Dig Deeper

An effect size of 0.40 is what Hattie refers to as a hinge-point regarding what is significantly effective or at “a level where the effects of innovation enhance achievement in such a way that we can notice real-world differences” (Hattie, 2009).

Classroom discussion is another critical area of Hattie’s study with a huge effect size. Classroom discussions provide the opportunity for students to communicate with one another for a variety of functions including to:

Activate prior knowledge
Explore new topics,
Learn from others, and
Demonstrate their learning

This is an engagement strategy which provides all students the chance to participate, especially when structured in a way that extends beyond a teacher-student question and answer sequence.

Make Classroom Discussion Work

Some ideas:

Before having students respond to questions using an online platform, have students discuss briefly with a partner.
Listen and seek insights into how students are interpreting questions (giving the teacher an opportunity to clarify or redirect).
As a result of discussion prior to sharing responses, students will generate more thoughtful responses with deeper analysis and more complex ideas.
View and select individual students’ responses to either use as models or deepen further discussion for the whole class.
Make strategic decisions about what you see, such as which students to call on or how to nudge students’ thinking in advance. (Source)

The main benefit of classroom discussion is that YOU, as the teacher, can use class discussion as a source of data to adapt instruction.

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