Remote Discussion Strategies

Well-suited for:

• Remembering specific ethical concepts, questions, claims and theories (from class or readings).

• Learning context around ethical claims and theories.

• Learning a range of ethical views on a given issue.

Strengths:

• Focuses discussion around specific topics from lecture. The Lecture Walkthrough format provides built-in structure to keep section discussion relatively focused on specific ideas and issues raised recently in class.

• Makes explicit the sometimes implicit content and structure of a lecture. Effectively learning and processing information through the lecture format is a learned skill, one which students will struggle with to varying extents. Talking through the ways a particular lecture is structured and emphasizing what information is being prioritized by the lecture, as well as how that priority is communicated by the lecturer and the structure of her lecture, can help students in the process of acquiring this skill.

• Great for discussing new information. A lecture walkthrough provides extra time and support for students to process the flood of information they can receive in a single lecture. This can be especially useful after lectures that have introduced a new topic or section of the class, when students are likely grappling with a set of new ideas all at once.

• Adds a social element back to online lectures. Online lectures, especially when given asynchronously, can lose some of the social aspects that come with in-person gatherings. By setting time aside in a synchronous discussion section to walkthrough a lecture, you can provide a rough proxy for some of the lost social benefits (immediate peer assistance, commiserating on difficult materials, etc.) of attending a lecture in-person

Potential Challenges and Solutions:

• I am doing all/most of the talking. It can occasionally be difficult to keep the Lecture Walkthrough format from feeling like a second lecture commenting on the first. This can prevent students from being actively and directly involved in the learning process, nullifying one of the key virtues of discussion sections.

  • Be a guide, not a translator. Rather than directly explaining what is being said in a highlighted lecture moment, ask students to explain what is being said (to you and other students). This will not only help the Lecture Walkthrough format be more of a discussion as opposed to a second lecture, but it will also encourage students to rely on each other (rather than only you) as sources of learning.

  • Invite students to select their own moments to focus on. Encourage (or even require) students to identify moments in lecture that they had questions about or felt were important. This can be done ahead of section or during the walkthrough itself. Let students jump in when their selected moment comes up, and ask them to explain why they’ve selected that moment of the lecture: what question do they have about it or why do they think it’s important? Use this as the grounds for further discussion.

  • Be ready to accept some reduced student involvement. Transitioning to remote learning can be quite difficult, and the circumstances that necessitate the transition can be even more difficult. It is thus natural that students may feel less able to prioritize and focus on class activities like section discussion. Be understanding of the situation and allow yourself to take a more central, directing role in discussion when necessary.

• Students are responding only/mostly to me, and not to one another. As you are guiding students through the lecture,this format can naturally put you at the center of any discussions that emerge from consideration of the lecture. This strategy can lead to many student-teacher-student or teacher-student-teacher interactions while constraining the number of student-student interactions.

  • Combine Lecture Walkthrough with other strategies. Make the Lecture Walkthrough only part of the agenda in a given section. For example, you might dedicate only the first part of section to the walkthrough and then follow up by breaking into small group discussions (you can do this using the "break out rooms" feature). Different activities can shake up classroom social structure, functionally removing you from the immediate section interaction, and thus force students to rely on their peers more.

  • Explicitly incorporate students’ responses into your own responses. When students turn to you for information and feedback, explicitly rely on questions and answers put forth by other students: collect questions/answers on the board or in an online document, use students’ questions, answers, and particular phrasing to frame discussion topics, call out and connect related points made by distinct students, and so on. Even if you are, functionally speaking, at the center of the discussion, you can still make the discussion clearly student-driven. Also, whenever possible, try to give students explicit credit for their contributions.

Well-suited for:

• Practicing identifying ethical claims.

• Practicing identifying components of arguments for ethical claims.

Strengths

• Makes explicit value and function of assigned readings. Students often don’t see the value in doing assigned readings, as opposed to just relying on information presented to them in lecture or section. Academic texts can be dense and inaccessible, especially relative to lectures and sections put together with an undergraduate audience in mind. By working through the text in section, you not only encourage students to spend time on text they might otherwise not, but you also help them develop the skills needed to see and use those texts as the valuable resources they are.

• Develops good reading habits. As much as we encourage to read texts carefully and repeatedly, we have little guarantee that they will actually do so once they leave class. By dedicating section time to close reading, you can both ensure that students have at least some time to spend on (specific parts of) readings. Moreover, by providing guidance during these close readings, you can help students practice good reading habits (rereading difficult passages, asking questions as your read, reading in a group, and so on).

• Great for early reading assignments. DIfferent academic disciplines can have very different expectations and practices around readings. Going through early reading assignments together is a good way to introduce new students to discipline-specific reading approaches and make explicit otherwise implicit reading norms (perhaps even some which you have already completely internalized).

• Provides an additional, in-section opportunity for students to engage with text that they may not have outside of class hours. The transition to remote learning and the circumstances that necessitate it will likely reduce the time students can dedicate to outside classwork like readings. A Guided Close Reading section can provide an organized, class-supported way to get some of this reading time back.

Potential Challenges and Solutions

• Some students comprehend selected passages immediately, while others struggle. Different students will be able to process texts at different speeds. This can lead to sections where only relatively quick readers are able to participate.

  • Distribute selected passages ahead of time. Let students know what passages you will be reading in section, and make sure those passages are easily accessible ahead of section.

  • Slow down. While some students will likely find the relevant passages more immediately accessible and comprehensible than other students, academic texts don’t always (or even often) reward speed. Make sure you give students time to think about the text being worked through. Stop to ask follow-up questions, write up distinction on the board, or ask students to diagram out arguments being presented in the text.

  • Be more flexible about reading expectations/requirement. The transition to remote learning and the circumstances that necessitate it will likely reduce the time students can dedicate to outside classwork like readings. Be understanding of students who aren't able to complete assigned readings and be ready to engage in more text summation than you might normally do. If possible, consider speaking to your course head about reducing reading assignments.

• Students struggle to have open, flowing dialogue when narrowly focused on the text. While specific ethical hard cases or broader ethical theories and concepts can often easily motivate active, enthusiastic discussions, students can feel limited when conversation is focused on specific passages from specific texts.

• • Draw students' attention to specific interpretative or exegetical questions. Academics rarely (if ever) treat text as transparent, straightforward transcriptions of information. Rather, academics are always asking questions about the texts they read: investigating points of ambiguity, debating varying interpretations, and so on. These sorts of questions can be (and are) sources of lively discussion, but they are discussion that can only be accessed once one is made aware of the relevant questions. Really learning a text often involves coming to learn such questions.

  • Provide relevant context. Often times, students don’t feel like they have much to say about a given reading because they don’t understand the significance of that text. You can help remove this barrier to discussion by providing social, historical, theoretical, and even personal context for the readings. If students are struggling to connect with a reading, it can be useful to openly have a discussion about the significance of the work. Why do these readings (these passages) matter?

  • Be ready to accept some reduced student involvement. Transitioning to remote learning can be quite difficult, and the circumstances that necessitate the transition can be even more difficult. It is thus natural that students may feel less able to prioritize and focus on class activities like section discussion. Be understanding of the situation and allow yourself to take a more central, directing role in discussion when necessary.

Well-suited for:

• Recognizing the reasoning and motivations behind an ethical claim or theory.

• Recognizing the reasoning and motivations behind their own personal values, principles, virtues, or choices.

Strengths

• Builds students’ confidence. By first presenting their answers to a small group of peers, and then getting feedback and advice from those peers, students come to feel more comfortable presenting their own thinking in a larger class setting.

• Allows students to practice giving and receiving feedback in a low-stakes setting. Having productive discussions about complex or charged issues (as ethical issues often are) requires a number of learned skills, including the ability to receive and give feedback directed at a view (as opposed to at a person). This format allows students to practice that ability at a small scale, before applying it to the larger scale of a full class discussion.

• Allows students to take charge of the discussion. While you set the parameters of the discussion with your question, the substantive content of the discussion is provided by students. This can allow students to have a more direct, personal connection to the material and a more direct stake in the discussion.

• Allows for intimate, direct social interactions between students. The switch to remote teaching breaks up many, if not all, of the normal opportunities students have to interact with one another and get to know their classmates more personally. Building in time for small group work into section can provide an opportunity to get some of this back, as smaller group discussions allow for the kind of direct, personal interactions that aren't really possible on larger video conferences.

• Great for discussions early in the term. The Think-Pair-Share format has an innate social element built into it, so organizing discussion this way can help students get to know one another. Vary who students are paired with to help students become familiar with all their discussion partners. Building a sense of section-wide familiarity early on in the term will help students feel comfortable collaboratively tackling (sometimes quite difficult) ethical topics throughout the term.

Potential Challenges and Solutions

• I feel like I don’t have control of the discussion; we are getting off-topic. Because the substantive content of the discussion is generated by students (first on their own, then in groups), you may find that you have less opportunities to intervene and manage the focus of class discussion (both when students are discussing in small groups, and when they are sharing with the class).

  • Listen in to small-group discussions. When students break apart into small groups, work your way around the class (if you are in Zoom, this can be done by moving between breakout rooms) and listen to their discussions. If these discussions get significantly confused or off-topic, gently intervene (ask a helpful question, clarify a relevant concept, etc.). If you can keep the small group discussions focused and productive, your reconvened full-class discussion will likely also be focused and productive.

  • Provide a framework. The questions you provide students with at the start of this format provide a framework for all the discussion to follow, so be thoughtful about the questions you ask students to answer and how you ask them to answer. Be explicit about what topics or material, if any, you want students to consider in answering the questions, and make clear what a strong, thoughtful answer involves (perhaps even give an example). As they break off into their small groups, remind students of these relevant questions, topics, and materials.

  • Let go. As noted, one of the strengths of this activity is that it puts students more in control of the discussion. By relinquishing some of this control, you invariably allow for a little more unpredictability and possibility of error. That’s OK. Students can learn a lot from their mistakes, and a discussion section can be a great, safe place to make such mistakes. Moreover, by giving students that control, you also allow for the possibility of viewpoints that you hadn’t considered (and that your students perhaps didn’t know counted as legitimate viewpoints), as well as the possibility of having discussions on relevant topics that students know better (fields outside of your own, personal values, etc.). Additionally, consider allowing (or even encouraging) students to have personal conversations within their small groups, and build in extra time in small groups for these talks. Given difficult, transitional times, letting students connect to their peers might be just as pedagogically productive as attending to any particular class materials or topics.

• In the full-class discussion, students are just stating their answers and not discussing them. After reconvening from their small groups, students may proceed to only report their answers and the outcomes of their small groups’ discussions, rather than engaging in a new, full-class discussion.

  • Give and repeat clear instructions. In any multi-step activity, there is a chance students will fail to understand or lose track of the functions of the activity. As you reconvene for the full-class discussion, make clear that students need to continue to discuss the views on hand.

  • Model responding. When an individual student gives their answers, ask appropriate questions and make relevant suggestions (after giving time for students to jump in of their own accord). Encourage students to follow up. As the teacher, students implicitly look to you to model behavior.

Well-suited for:

• Defending or critiquing a particular claim or choice.

• Defending or critiquing an ethical theory.

Strengths:

• Can help energize discussion. Debates need not be competitive per se (at the end of the day, students should be working with their classmates to grow their understanding), but investing in one side of an issue (artificially or otherwise) can get students actively involved in a discussion for which they might otherwise feel disconnected.

• Can help flesh out less popular views. It can be tempting, even for trained academics, to quickly move past positions we find intuitively implausible (or even intuitively immoral). Your students are also vulnerable to this, and less popular opinions can often receive insufficient critical attention in free-flowing discussion. The debate format forces all relevant positions to be thought through (whether or not the thought-through position is any more convincing).

• Great for digging deeper. Debates work best when both sides have had some time to consider the relevant issues and develop their thinking on the matter. As such, in-section debates often work best once students have already spent substantive class time with the relevant material. A debate can be a great way to re-energize discussion on a subject you have already spent some time on, but isn’t an especially great way to introduce new material.

Potential Challenges and Solutions

• Students are uncomfortable defending views they disagree with. Depending on how you elect to assign positions, students may find themselves defending a position they disagree with (or critiquing a position they agree with). They might it challenging or even problematic to argue contrary to their personal beliefs, even in an artificial debate setting.

  • Explain the purpose of section debate. The aim of hosting a debate, at least in the context of a discussion section, is to help develop a better understanding of a relevant issue or argument (as opposed to, say, advance a specific position or even just show off rhetorical prowess). A discussion section affords a safe context to fully explore and understand positions, even if we think they are wrong. Even if we think a position is wrong, we should hope to reject it for the right reasons. Clearly articulating a defending that position in a section-debate context offers us the opportunity to make sure we are at least doing that.

  • Offer the option to trade sides or defend a third option. If a student is seriously uncomfortable with defending their assigned view, they can either switch positions with another student, or attempt to argue for some third option. If you do offer students the opportunity to argue for a third option, make sure to work with the student before-hand to ensure that this option is at least a coherent position.

• Students become too focused on “winning” the debate. The seemingly competitive structure of a debate can encourage students to focus on rhetorically “beating” the “other side,” rather than using objections as an opportunity to develop their own views and provide their debate counterparts the same opportunity to develop their views.

  • Explain the purpose of section debate. Before section, make clear that the aim of hosting a debate, at least in the context of a discussion section, is to help develop a better understanding of a relevant issue or argument. It is not aimed at advancing a specific position or establishing rhetorical superiority.

  • Provide a end-of-debate debrief. At the end of section, run through major points of discussion and remaining questions. This will allow you to conclude the section with an emphasis on specific learning arrived at through the debate, rather than on the debate exercise itself.

• It is difficult to organize and run a debate using remote teaching tools. While online video conferencing tools can work well for some section strategies, debate requires that students be able to both work within their group, speak out to the rest of the class, and respond to objections from other debaters. It can be difficult to manage this kind of multi-faceted discussion within a single video call.

  • Establish and review discussion norms specific to online debate. The same norms of respectful discussion establish for other discussion sections (even other online discussion sections) might not work, or may be insufficient, within a debate context. As such, it can be useful to establish discussion norms specific to the debate. For example, you might ask debate sides to establish representatives to speak for their group and have all other members mute their mics (thus avoiding confusing cross-talk).

  • If using Zoom, using the platform's tool to break up and manage the different aspects of the debate. For example, you can move debate participants into side-specific breakout rooms to plan their group's arguments and then return to the full-section video call when it is time to debate between sides. You might also enable private, student-to-student chat in order to allow group members to discuss and organize responses during debate.

  • Organize an asynchronous debate. Using Canvas's discussion boards (or other similar, online forum tools), organize an asynchronous, online debate. You might, for example, ask each side to collectively formulate and post an opening position statement, and then ask the other side(s) to post an objection or response, to which each side can post a rebuttal. Make sure to set up time frames/expectations for posting times, so as to ensure that the debate proceeds in a timely fashion (w/out necessarily requiring students to constantly check the boards for updates).

Well-suited for:

• Modifying an ethical claim or theory to respond to some problem.

• Providing an original solution to (or even an original way of thinking about) a particular issue or case.

Strengths

• Emphasizes the ordinariness and inescapability of ethics. By engaging in case simulation, students are forced to encounter ethical questions and challenges in a way similar to how they arise in actual day-to-day life (as opposed to more abstract puzzles considered in a classroom setting). Ethical questions and challenges are part of being a thoughtful agent acting in the world.

• Encourages applied ethical reasoning. While other forms of open discussion can be useful for teasing out the structure and content of ethical claims, commitments, and theories, working through case simulations can encourage students to work towards practical conclusions in their ethical reasoning and discussion – results that can be acted upon in real world situations.

• Creates an opportunity for cooperative work between students. The switch to remote teaching breaks up many, if not all, of the normal opportunities students have to socially interact with and work together. Running cooperative group activities like this in section can help make up for some of the lost communal work and leisure opportunities.

• Great for discussion sections later in or at the end of the term. While simulation activities can be effectively employed in service of all types of learning goals, having students create serious, original responses to ethical theories or cases requires that students already have a significant level of familiarity with the relevant theories or cases. Insufficiently prepared students are likely to get confused about the relevance of the hypothetical simulation scenario, the connections between the scenario and ethical issues discussed in the course, and so on. However, if used once students have already become familiar with the relevant course issues, an Ethics Policy Simulation discussion can be a great opportunity for students to apply their new knowledge.

Potential Challenges and Solutions

• Students struggle to make connections between particular cases and broader ethical considerations or theories. Students can struggle to identify ethical relevant features of the case, and they can get caught up responding to particular features of the given case, as opposed to using the case as a chance to apply general ethical values, principles, or views.

  • Hold a debrief. Save time at the end of section to review and/or discuss important ethical ideas that came up in students’ policies or statements. Use this as an opportunity to draw explicit connections to course material or broader ethical ideas in general.

  • Recognize the difficulty. During discussion of students’ statements or policies, intervene and explicitly note points where students are missing an important connection or failing to notice an ethically relevant consideration. This can serve both as an opportunity to make clear the complexity of careful, applied ethical reasoning while also modeling such careful reasoning for students.

• Students are hesitant to ask questions or provide feedback to other student groups on their policies. Students can feel uncomfortable being critical of fellow students’ work, especially when that work can express personal views on substantive, real world ethical cases.

  • Model questions and feedback. After allowing time for other students to respond first, raise questions or concerns to presenting students yourself. Put forth questions and concerns that are indicative of the kind of questions/concerns that are valuable in a discussion of ethical issues (e.g., make sure any concern you raise is explicitly aimed at the content of the statement/policy, not at the authors of that statement/policy).

  • Run a simulation test case. Before running the main policy simulation discussion, run a shorter sample simulation where you provide a policy/statement in response to a different (but relevantly similar) case, and invite students to direct questions/concerns toward your own policy/statement. This can encourage students to feel comfortable in the general discussion format, before having to directly address their peers.