Introduction:
The educator
prepares students for discussion, establishes an environment that welcomes thought, scaffolds discussion where needed, monitors participation, and consolidates thinking.
Collaborative discussion is one of the most effective tools to deepen students’ understanding and engagement with texts. Discussion offers students the opportunity to build arguments and defend them with evidence, consider opposing points of view, elaborate ideas, and build complex webs of knowledge by revealing and furthering thinking. Unfortunately, the amount of time devoted to classroom discussion is measurable in seconds per day (Nystrand 2006), and when discussion does occur, the quality and depth of students’ discourse is often limited (Zwiers & Crawford, 2011).
Though discussion is often considered a student-centric activity, reaping the benefits of discussion requires educators to play an active role in preparing students, creating an environment that welcomes thought, scaffolding discussion when needed, monitoring participation, and consolidating thinking.
