Publications and Press
What do we know about classroom discussion?
For the past 20 years, research in social studies and civic education has shown that teachers avoid political discussion in the classroom for a number of reasons, including: fear that discussion will get too heated, teachers may not know enough about the issues themselves, the same few student talk while others disengage, discussion takes time away from the “content” of the course, and out of concern that principals and parents are not supportive of political discussion. Yet, our research has shown that using structured, student-centered discussion strategies alleviates many of these worries. Specifically, we find that:
- Structures reinforce discussion norms by, for example, requiring times where students must engage in active listening or charitable retelling.
- Structures require students to read and learn content for the purpose of discussing–reinforcing the content.
- Discussion becomes more equitable with structure. The designs result in near equal participation in the discussion and normalize disagreement. Students become more comfortable sharing their views.
- Students report that they participate more when there is structure to the discussion.
- Students report that they like student centered discussion and feel good about the contributions they make.
Last, using these structures creates a classroom in which students must share in the responsibility for giving and responding to the reasons generated by their peers. This is an important democratic skill. It also means that teachers become facilitators and not as involved in the discussion–this provides some protection from those who might challenge what teachers say in the classroom.
