As instructors, our goal is to get students to engage in deep learning. We can do this by having students reflect on new material, make connections to what they already know, use evidence to substantiate their thinking, and promote caring about their learning. However, many students often take a surface-level approach to learning to get through a “task” like a test or an assignment with the sole focus on their final grade. Carefully structuring discussions can promote deeper learning by giving space and time for processing new material.
Strategies & Examples
Experiment with Different Question Stems. Diverse types of questions can guide students in reflection, integration, and connection that contributes to deeper learning. You can scaffold the types of questions you ask to increase higher-order critical thinking.
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Purposeful Question Stems, developed by Linda Nilson, are scaffolded by cognitive level reflective of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
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CLOSE-UP Question Stems, developed by Stephen Brookfield, offer a range of question types that help students demonstrate comprehension, integration, and analysis.
Consider Sharing Discussion Questions in Advance. After strategizing about which types of questions to ask in response to the material, consider whether it would be advantageous to share the series of questions with your students before the in-class discussion as a way to prepare for deeper learning.
Vary Discussion Structures that Work with Your Teaching Context. Using effective discussion questions within a discussion structure (or activity) guides students in reflecting, connecting, and integrating the course content. To keep students engaged, it is helpful to vary the types of discussion structures/activities in your class. The list below is a sample of several types of discussion structures to explore, organized by the level of preparation needed by the instructor.
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Think-Pair-Share (Low Prep): In this structure, the instructor poses a question, gives students a few minutes to think about a response, and then asks students to share their ideas with a partner.
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Four Corners (Low Prep): Students are presented with a controversial statement. In each of the four corners of the classroom, an opinion or response is posted. Students express their opinion by standing in front of the statements and sharing their position.
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Circular Response (Low Prep): Students take turns expressing their thoughts in response to an instructor’s prompt, but by making a brief summary of the preceding speaker’s comments and using that as a springboard for their own remarks.
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Jigsaw Technique (High Prep): In a jigsaw, students participate in two rounds of small group activities. In the first round, each group of students is given a different reading or topic to discuss. In the second round, groups are reformed so that each new group has a representative from each of the first round groups for further discussion and collaborative teaching.
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Gallery Walks (High Prep): This discussion technique allows students to be actively engaged as they walk throughout the classroom. They work together in small groups to share ideas and respond to meaningful questions, documents, images, problem-solving situations, or texts.
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SPAR (Spontaneous Argumentation) (High Prep): Students frame their argument in one minute and then react quickly to their opponents’ ideas. This strategy helps students practice using evidence and examples to defend a position.
