Skip to main content
Exploring Teaching and Learning in Luddy Indiana University

Helping students engage in better discussions

Posted on by akesha

Preparing students to engage in meaningful small groups discussions can be challenging regardless the modality (face-to-face or online).  For example, some students might comment when they are unprepared, and mostly agreeing with what everyone else says, to earn participation points. While others may make claims without evidence supported by the readings and examples provided by the instructor. How do we help students learn how to meaningfully engage in academic discourse? This quick tip addresses how to support students who may not know how to participate in discussions.
In a handout, Weimer (2021) categorizes the different types of rhetorical moves that can be made in an academic discussion. The list below was developed from the research of Paine & Knight, (2020), who conducted an empirical analysis of interactions in 30 lab groups plus data collected on 91 individuals by using “the Exchange of Quality Reasoning scale…Most discussions (72%) did not use reasoning (level 0) or had reasoning by only one student (level 1)…only 5% of all discussions reached [the top] level 3, in which at least two students tied their claims directly to the supporting evidence with reasoning” (https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.20-03-0054).

Their coded data yielded these categories:

Analyze

Make direct references to the content; point things out.

Recall

Remind others of relevant information that helps to answer the question or solve the problem.

Repeat

Restate something that’s already been said but use different words to clarify the comment.

Extend

Suggest further analysis by building on or adding to what others have said.

Claim

Make a statement that proposes an idea, answer, or solution.

Reason

Defend a claim by offering evidence that supports the idea, answer, or solution.

Question

Ask a question about something confusing, not known, or of interest.

Affirm

Make statement that agrees with what someone else has said.

Focus attention

Direct the group’s attention to the task or to content relevant to it.

Teach

Explain something to someone who doesn’t understand or misunderstands it.

Drive discussion

Keep the group on track; move the discussion forward. What does the group need to do next?

Agree

Help the group come to consensus after disagreement; get as many group members as possible to agree on the final answer or solution.

Disagree

Respond to a claim by proposing a different idea, view, or perspective.

Other

Make a comment that’s off topic, unrelated to what the group is supposed to be talking about.
Weimer explains that each of these types of comments have value in a discussion. (“Yes, even off-topic comments, provided they don’t sidetrack the group. Sometimes the group just needs to take a break and a deep breath”).
While it is often the assumed that students have developed these types of skills prior to entering your class, it is also possible that while students have been exposed to these skills, they are at different levels of mastery, with some still needing support to succeed at holding academic discussions. It could be of benefit to help students in first- and second-year courses identify these statements while in a discussion that uses discipline specific content.
Additional Resources: 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to toolbar