4 Strategies for Engaging Discussions

Dialogue is an important agent of change that can help students gain knowledge, transform their perspectives, and develop mutual understanding (Porteus et al., n.d.; Schuman, 2005). To help create safe spaces for dialogue and nurture impactful discussion experiences for your students, consider these four strategies when facilitating discussions in an online classroom:

• Prepare open-ended questions. Preparation is an undervalued strategy for facilitating effective dialogue. The best questions for facilitating discussions are open-ended questions that begin with ‘what’ or ‘how’ (Schuman, 2005). Try preparing five to ten open-ended questions in advance of your discussion activity. 

• Begin with Community Guidelines. Having the class agree on community guidelines before a discussion is a great way to create safe spaces and establish clear expectations of discussion behaviors (Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching, n.d.-a). For ideas of what guidelines to promote for classroom discussions, you can view this article on 5 Discussion Rules for Turbulent Times.   

• Be neutral. Being neutral on a topic is one of the most difficult aspects of facilitating dialogue. Although you may have many thoughts and opinions on a topic being discussed, as an authority figure in the classroom any opinion you offer may hinder or influence the flow of student dialogue. As a result, maintaining a neutral communication style during classroom discussions is best to encourage student engagement (Porteus et al., n.d). 

• End with reflection questions. Asking reflection questions at the end of a discussion is a great way to help students reflect on what they learned from the experience. Some example reflection questions you could ask are “What is one thing you learned from this discussion today?” or “What is one thing someone shared today that resonated with you?” (Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching, n.d.-a ).

What strategies do you use to nurture meaningful dialogue in your classroom? Please share in the comments section below. 

References:

• Porteus, A., Howe, N., & Woon, T. (n.d.). Facilitating Group Discussions. Retrieved January 14, 2021, from https://web.stanford.edu/group/resed/resed/staffresources/RM/training/facilguide.html
• Schuman, S. (Ed.). (2005). The IAF handbook of group facilitation: Best practices from the leading organization in facilitation (Vol. 1). John Wiley & Sons.
• Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. (n.d.-a ). Difficult dialogues. Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/difficult-dialogues/
• Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. (n.d.-b). Discussions. Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/discussions/ 

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