One of Kevin Gannon’s favorite class discussion activities doesn’t involve much talking. Inspired by complete-the-story games in which players each write a line of a tale that builds off a previous ...

Discussion was the element of my college classes I enjoyed most. I loved sitting in a class with a diverse group of people discussing literature, historical events, and political issues. In those ...

So the day of the text-based discussion has arrived and all of the students have had time to think about their ideas, write them down and pair-share in preparation for a vibrant and meaningful student ...

It makes sense that students are more likely to ask and address questions with teachers who are open, enthusiastic and encouraging, who select interesting and important material to discuss, and who ...

The image used in this post is of a small group of students sitting in a room together, (seemingly) energetically talking about the issues at hand. This is an example of synchronous discussion—the ...

Why Are Class Discussions Challenging? There are a variety of reasons that class discussions are challenging. It’s not necessarily just students being “lazy”. There could be a lot of real issues and ...

Often we as instructors look for ways to include classroom participation as part of our course design. Student participation can take the form of simply being present in class to actively discussing ...

“It would be hard to name a more valuable pedagogical accomplishment than the mastery of questioning, listening, and response: three teaching skills as linked, though distinct, as the panels of a ...

At some point in their career, every teacher will find themselves having a difficult discussion with their students. My first took place not long after I began teaching. It involved one of my students ...

People often ask me to name my favorite online teaching tool. My answer is always the same: Hands down, it’s online discussion forums. As a veteran online teacher, I view discussion forums as the meat ...