DISCUSSION SKILLS
Modeling Intellectual Inquiry Through Class Discussion
Classroom discussion is one of the principal methods I employ to develop students’ inquiry and learning skills. It is one of the most common formats I use in my classroom because it is a direct and efficient way to model these skills and to provide instantaneous feedback to individuals. It also is lively and engaging, generating enthusiasm for learning, and helps to build community and trust between the students that are essential for an outstanding learning environment.
Classroom discussions also allow me to direct the level of intensity at which the game of intellectual inquiry is played, letting me speed the game up or slow it down. As I learned through my training in sports, playing the game with intensity tests and improves your skills, makes you sharp and quick on your feet, and develops your power of concentration. At other times our class will slow down and give students time for quiet reflection and contemplation to put their thoughts down into their notebooks and gather their ideas. We learn the value of playing fast and slow, discovering the potency of both ways of operating.
Learning the Vocabulary of Inquiry and Critical Thinking
One of the fundamental goals advanced by class discussion is to help students learn the essential vocabulary of inquiry and give them ample practice putting these concepts to work. The key concepts of critical thinking have always been prominently displayed on the wall at the front of my classroom and students keep a one page list in the front of their binders so that the fundamental terms are constantly in front of them and there to aid their work. I use the concepts of thinking constantly in our investigations and encourage students to employ them as well. To aid their response to a question or critique of a student’s idea, I frequently direct their attention to the sheet of key terms and ask them which ones seem applicable to this situation. In this way, students become familiar with the language of thinking and practice wielding it skillful on a daily basis.
Modeling Intellectual Inquiry Through Class Discussion
Classroom discussion is one of the principal methods I employ to develop students’ inquiry and learning skills. It is one of the most common formats I use in my classroom because it is a direct and efficient way to model these skills and to provide instantaneous feedback to individuals. It also is lively and engaging, generating enthusiasm for learning, and helps to build community and trust between the students that are essential for an outstanding learning environment.
Classroom discussions also allow me to direct the level of intensity at which the game of intellectual inquiry is played, letting me speed the game up or slow it down. As I learned through my training in sports, playing the game with intensity tests and improves your skills, makes you sharp and quick on your feet, and develops your power of concentration. At other times our class will slow down and give students time for quiet reflection and contemplation to put their thoughts down into their notebooks and gather their ideas. We learn the value of playing fast and slow, discovering the potency of both ways of operating.
Learning the Vocabulary of Inquiry and Critical Thinking
One of the fundamental goals advanced by class discussion is to help students learn the essential vocabulary of inquiry and give them ample practice putting these concepts to work. The key concepts of critical thinking have always been prominently displayed on the wall at the front of my classroom and students keep a one page list in the front of their binders so that the fundamental terms are constantly in front of them and there to aid their work. I use the concepts of thinking constantly in our investigations and encourage students to employ them as well. To aid their response to a question or critique of a student’s idea, I frequently direct their attention to the sheet of key terms and ask them which ones seem applicable to this situation. In this way, students become familiar with the language of thinking and practice wielding it skillful on a daily basis.
Making the Moves of the Intellectual Game
Of course, learning the vocabulary of thinking is just a component of grasping how the larger game of intellectual inquiry is played. The questions I begin with, the ones that follow thereafter, the direction of our progress, the tangents we strike out on, the interconnections with other fields of study we make, the pictures we examine, the metaphors we employ, the drawings and charts we construct, and the further questions we propose demonstrate the intellectual moves that help us to gain a more complete understanding of our topic. Students, of course, also lead the game, setting it off in new directions with insightful questions, making their own connections, and discussing, developing, and testing with others their own point of view. Class discussions are an endlessly unpredictable, invigorating exercise in thinking through a topic together that hones the students’ abilities to employ the processes of learning and play the great game of intellectual inquiry with dexterity and zeal.
Purposes, the Quality of Questions, and the Quality of Answers
When you understand the elements of reason, the heart of critical thinking, you know that inquiry begins with a purpose. If you don’t have a purpose, I explain to my students, then go to the beach and enjoy yourself; you have nothing you need to do. However, once you have adopted a purpose and established some goal, you have initiated the process of critical thinking and will need to employ the other seven elements of reason to achieve that objective. To work towards your goal, you next need to generate the questions that will enable you to arrive at your destination and satisfy your purpose. It is the questions you ask that ultimately will bear the fruit of answers. It will be the quality of your questions that will determine the quality of your answers. If you ask unclear, imprecise, shallow, narrow, and insignificant questions, you will get back answers of the same nature. My students come to understand this point well, because it is given emphasis in our study of learning and modeled extensively in class discussions.
Socratic Questioning and Discussion
The importance of questions is highlighted by my use of Socratic questioning to drive classroom investigations. The essence of Socratic questioning is to ask questions that probe what people believe and why they believe it. The Socratic questioner is first trying to help the students effectively communicate their thinking and asks questions that help to make their ideas more clear and precise. Next, the questioner seeks to understand how students arrived at their idea by asking questions about how their thinking was constructed to create a house of thought. The Socratic questioner simply asks questions that help thinkers articulate how they put the eight elements of reason together to arrive at their idea.
Once a student’s house of thought is made explicit, then others can better critique the quality of its construction. To do this, my students often become the Socratic questioners and use the standards of reasoning, the tools used to judge the quality of thinking, to test their fellow students’ thought constructs. They formulate questions or challenge the student’s thinking by focusing on its clarity, relevance, logic, accuracy, precision, depth, breadth, significance, and fair-mindedness.
The other major move of Socratic questioning is to ask the thinker about alternative ways in which their house of thought could have been constructed. The questioner focuses on possibilities that were not considered by the thought construct being evaluated, such as other purposes, questions, points of view, assumptions, information, concepts, conclusions, or consequences that also could have been included.
In sum, class discussions directed by Socratic questions familiarize students with the basic moves of the game that become fundamentals of their intellectual playbook.
Building Oral Explanation Skills
Another essential skill developed in class discussions is the art of explanation, a highly important tool for success. Young students need to develop the ability to explain ideas orally and through writing that it is clear, organized, and effective. I make sure that students have a lot of time to talk in class discussions because not only does it develop their oral explanation abilities, but I believe it carries over and supports their progress in written explanation as well. The students and I employ the elements and standards of reason to ask the speaker questions of clarification and engage in dialogue. In addition to practicing use of these thinking tools, class discussion gives students valuable exercise in the art of explanation and provides immediate feedback that increases the pace of their progress.
Intellectual Curiosity, Tangential Thinking, Interconnections in the World of Human Knowledge
Class discussion is perfect for developing the more creative and non-linear aspects of thinking as well. I enjoy being inventive and playful in my questioning, challenging students mental flexibility and stretching their ability to make connections between the topic at hand and other areas of knowledge. I let my intellectual curiosity loose and ask questions that arise in the moment to which I have no answer and invite students to puzzle along with me. Besides modeling intellectual humility and demonstrating the limits of my knowledge, questions like this encourage students to wonder, have curiosity, think playfully, formulate theories, and make educated guesses, all hallmarks of an inquisitive and creative mind.
We also will go off on tangents in class discussions when the point being raised sparks a connection to a related topic that will enrich our investigation. I purposely seek out interconnections that will weave the topic at hand together with other issues in the world of knowledge. Building an integrated understanding between subject areas I believe is an important intellectual skill to model for young learners and an essential goal for which an educated person should strive.
Of course, learning the vocabulary of thinking is just a component of grasping how the larger game of intellectual inquiry is played. The questions I begin with, the ones that follow thereafter, the direction of our progress, the tangents we strike out on, the interconnections with other fields of study we make, the pictures we examine, the metaphors we employ, the drawings and charts we construct, and the further questions we propose demonstrate the intellectual moves that help us to gain a more complete understanding of our topic. Students, of course, also lead the game, setting it off in new directions with insightful questions, making their own connections, and discussing, developing, and testing with others their own point of view. Class discussions are an endlessly unpredictable, invigorating exercise in thinking through a topic together that hones the students’ abilities to employ the processes of learning and play the great game of intellectual inquiry with dexterity and zeal.
Purposes, the Quality of Questions, and the Quality of Answers
When you understand the elements of reason, the heart of critical thinking, you know that inquiry begins with a purpose. If you don’t have a purpose, I explain to my students, then go to the beach and enjoy yourself; you have nothing you need to do. However, once you have adopted a purpose and established some goal, you have initiated the process of critical thinking and will need to employ the other seven elements of reason to achieve that objective. To work towards your goal, you next need to generate the questions that will enable you to arrive at your destination and satisfy your purpose. It is the questions you ask that ultimately will bear the fruit of answers. It will be the quality of your questions that will determine the quality of your answers. If you ask unclear, imprecise, shallow, narrow, and insignificant questions, you will get back answers of the same nature. My students come to understand this point well, because it is given emphasis in our study of learning and modeled extensively in class discussions.
Socratic Questioning and Discussion
The importance of questions is highlighted by my use of Socratic questioning to drive classroom investigations. The essence of Socratic questioning is to ask questions that probe what people believe and why they believe it. The Socratic questioner is first trying to help the students effectively communicate their thinking and asks questions that help to make their ideas more clear and precise. Next, the questioner seeks to understand how students arrived at their idea by asking questions about how their thinking was constructed to create a house of thought. The Socratic questioner simply asks questions that help thinkers articulate how they put the eight elements of reason together to arrive at their idea.
Once a student’s house of thought is made explicit, then others can better critique the quality of its construction. To do this, my students often become the Socratic questioners and use the standards of reasoning, the tools used to judge the quality of thinking, to test their fellow students’ thought constructs. They formulate questions or challenge the student’s thinking by focusing on its clarity, relevance, logic, accuracy, precision, depth, breadth, significance, and fair-mindedness.
The other major move of Socratic questioning is to ask the thinker about alternative ways in which their house of thought could have been constructed. The questioner focuses on possibilities that were not considered by the thought construct being evaluated, such as other purposes, questions, points of view, assumptions, information, concepts, conclusions, or consequences that also could have been included.
In sum, class discussions directed by Socratic questions familiarize students with the basic moves of the game that become fundamentals of their intellectual playbook.
Building Oral Explanation Skills
Another essential skill developed in class discussions is the art of explanation, a highly important tool for success. Young students need to develop the ability to explain ideas orally and through writing that it is clear, organized, and effective. I make sure that students have a lot of time to talk in class discussions because not only does it develop their oral explanation abilities, but I believe it carries over and supports their progress in written explanation as well. The students and I employ the elements and standards of reason to ask the speaker questions of clarification and engage in dialogue. In addition to practicing use of these thinking tools, class discussion gives students valuable exercise in the art of explanation and provides immediate feedback that increases the pace of their progress.
Intellectual Curiosity, Tangential Thinking, Interconnections in the World of Human Knowledge
Class discussion is perfect for developing the more creative and non-linear aspects of thinking as well. I enjoy being inventive and playful in my questioning, challenging students mental flexibility and stretching their ability to make connections between the topic at hand and other areas of knowledge. I let my intellectual curiosity loose and ask questions that arise in the moment to which I have no answer and invite students to puzzle along with me. Besides modeling intellectual humility and demonstrating the limits of my knowledge, questions like this encourage students to wonder, have curiosity, think playfully, formulate theories, and make educated guesses, all hallmarks of an inquisitive and creative mind.
We also will go off on tangents in class discussions when the point being raised sparks a connection to a related topic that will enrich our investigation. I purposely seek out interconnections that will weave the topic at hand together with other issues in the world of knowledge. Building an integrated understanding between subject areas I believe is an important intellectual skill to model for young learners and an essential goal for which an educated person should strive.
