Author(s): VandeWeghe. Rick
Published: May 2005 in The English Journal
URL to article
Research Focus Area: Strategies for using questioning and discussion techniques to deepen student understanding
Abstract:
An English teacher discusses the advantages and disadvantages of discussion-based teaching approaches, student understanding, and student achievement. It is noted that the discussion-based approaches in the classroom have a direct impact on students’ development as readers.
Research Question(s):
What are the advantages and disadvantages of discussion-based teaching approaches?
Methods:
classroom observation
Setting:
- Researchers studied 1,111 students in 64 classes for an entire school year.
- The study involved nineteen schools in five states: five urban, five suburban high schools, and four urban and five suburban middle schools.
- More than half (53.5 percent) of the students were female
- 32.1 percent were Hispanic American, 17.6 percent were African American, and 6.3 percent were Asian American
- Over 31 percent of students received free or reduced- price lunch
Key Findings:
- The results of a 2004 study on classroom instruction and student achievement report that “when students’ classroom experiences emphasize high academic demands and discussion- based approaches to the development of understanding, students internalize the knowledge and skills necessary to engage in challenging literacy tasks on their own”
- Dialogic instruction is marked by three features that have been associated with improved student achievement:
- More use of authentic questions
- More time for open discussion
- More “uptake,” in which a teacher’s question “took up” and built on a student’s previous comment, creating continuity in the discourse
- Dialogic instruction stresses “the value of exploration of ideas and the development of understanding through discussion.
- Envisionment building characterizes the process whereby readers and writers develop their understanding of a text. Classroom practices that support envisionment building include:
- Teachers treat all students as capable envisionment builders with important understandings and potential contributions to classroom discussion;
- Teachers use instructional activities such as discussion to develop understandings rather than to test what students already know
- Teachers assume that questions are a natural part of the process of coming to understand new material, rather than an indication of failure to learn, and that questions provide productive starting points for discussion
- Teachers help students learn to examine multiple perspectives (from students, texts, and other voices) to enrich understanding rather than focusing on consensus nterpretation.
- Researchers have found strong correlations between envisionment building practices and academic achievement as measured by standard academic assessments.
- Curricular conversations are long-term explorations of specific topics that connect reading, writing, and discussion activities.
- Research has found that “when an entire course was integrated around one or more central topics of conversation, students’ knowledge and understanding developed cumulatively throughout the course as they revisited important issues and concepts from new perspectives.
- It is not discussion-based approaches alone that make the difference. High academic standards, as measured by the three criteria I discussed above, interact with discussion methods to support literacy development
Implications:
- “The approaches that contributed most to student performance on the complex literacy tasks that we administered were those that used discussion to develop comprehensive understanding, encouraging exploration and multiple perspectives rather than focusing on correct interpretations and predetermined conclusions
- We have more cause to increase discussion-based activities in lower-track classes to enhance literacy achievement
Limitations:
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