WK 40

Looks Who’s Talking! Using Discussion as an Effective Learning Tool

In-class discussions can be a useful teaching tool to help students explore, develop, synthesize, and evaluate scientific ideas, while providing an opportunity for instructors to formatively assess student understanding.  Discussions are an inherently active learning experience so long as both students and instructors are prepared.  Indeed, leading an effective discussion is one of the more challenging teaching skills. Even very successful educators can still struggle to foster productive student discussions. The goal of this workshop is for participants to explore a variety of techniques to facilitate the use of discussion in their classrooms in all levels of undergraduate education, including non-majors courses, and to improve student learning, particularly critical thinking skills and communication. 

In this workshop we will specifically explore three important components of successful discussion: 1) how to prepare as an instructor to lead a discussion, 2) how to prepare students in your class to effectively participate in discussion, and 3) how to help prepare students in your class to lead discussion.

We invite faculty, postdocs, and graduate students to join us as we explore discussion as a tool to support undergraduate biology education.