Panels

Students are unprepared or reticent to ask meaningful questions to peer panelists. Students may avoid asking questions to panelists, especially questions that they feel are difficult or will otherwise complicate their peers’ presentations.

• Share all assigned theories and questions ahead of section. Give all your students a chance to know what topics will be discussed in section ahead of time, even if they don’t need to prepare a presentation on all those topics. This is especially useful if you are using the panels format for review purposes.

• Review discussion norms and purposes. Before discussion begins (or in an email, etc.), take a moment to review and explain the importance and function of question-asking in academic discussion. Emphasize that the Q&A section of any real panel discussion is not only often the most informative part for attendees of the discussion, but is also extremely useful for the panelists as well (as it provides immediate feedback on the effectiveness of their presentation as well as an opportunity to think about the material in question in new and interesting ways).

A group of panelist-presenters struggles with their assigned theory or question. Sometimes, an ethical theory or question can prove uniquely difficult to a particular group, and they may struggle to effectively present on it. They may even accidentally misrepresent the assigned view or provide a misleading answer to the assigned question.

• Before section, review discussion norms and purposes. In particular, emphasize that all discussion sections should be understood as efforts to collectively improve our understanding of the relevant material, and encourage students to respectfully ask for clarification about any presented material they are unsure of/confused about.

• In section, provide a soft intervention. If some presented material is straightforwardly misleading (especially if the panel discussion is being used as review), consider stopping discussion and gently (but directly) clarifying the error yourself. If the error isn’t straightforward, consider saving your intervention for the “Q&A” segment of the panel format, and, instead, raise the point of confusion as a clarificatory question which the panel and other students can collectively work to untangle.