Ākonga engagement in discussion

Importance of Classroom Discussions

I did some reading about the importance of classroom discussions. This article says that having open -ended discussions can led to critical thinking, self awareness, collaboration and enhance learning by listening to peers. It can also led to a "respectful and collegial classroom learning atmosphere". 

In classroom discussions, the teacher is not the only initiator of the talk, but students can do as well (Atkinson 1981; Hillman 1997). 

Teachers and students can use words like “agree/disagree” rather than “right/wrong” when we exchange ideas and offer opinions. 

Classroom discussions can provide a mutually respectful learning climate (Dillon 

1994). 

Six values for having classroom discussions are:

• reasonableness
• peaceableness and orderliness
• truthfulness
• freedom
• equality
• respect for persons 

Students internalizing these values will be more effective in collaborating with others in the future.

Second, the collective learning processes embedded in classroom discussions 

help students with their knowledge-building and problem-solving through collaboration with their peers. This function works across subjects, grades, and cultures. 

Research has found that students learn faster (Perlmutter and de Montmollin 1952) 

and more efectively (e.g., in memory tasks; Yuker 1955) with their classmates than 

when they are learning alone. Engagement with peers in learning processes also 

helps students develop friendships, especially with whom they could relate intellec-

tually (Riley and White 2016).

Third, classroom discussions encompass time for students’ understanding and 

refection. When a discussion is ongoing, the initiator of a question may pause to 

get feedback from the others. This pause is a waiting time for understanding the 

question and for deliberating on answers and feedback. Besides, there is no predict-

able sequence of talk moves in classroom discussions as we will expect in recita-

tions such as Initiation-Response-Evaluation (Mehan 1979) or Initiation-Response-

Feedback (Coulthard and Sinclair 1975). Therefore, classroom discussions are more 

congenial to student-centred teaching and learning.

Fourth, classroom discussions contribute to the development of students’ 

higher-order thinking skills, given that questions asked in discussions are usu-

ally open-ended. These questions provide opportunities for students to share and 

elaborate on their reasoning, as opposed to close-ended questions seeking right 

or wrong answers (Larson, and Parker 1996; Roby 1988). Meanwhile, students’ 

learning approaches may evolve in this daily learning environment and impact 

on their lifelong development (Jurik et al. 2014; Mayer 2004; Mortimer and Scott 

2003).

Lastly, classroom discussions can promote students’ self-awareness (Howard 

2004). For example, in the progressing process from silent thinking to oral participation, 

students can monitor their growth in the ability to articulate informal 

ideas, to be able to respond to a changing interactive environment, and finally to 

be able to voice and defend controversial ideas they may have (Applebee et al. 

2003; Byram 1997). Therefore, classroom discussions can provide at least three 

kinds of environments: the social/cultural environment, the cognitive environment, 

and the pedagogical environment (Khong et al. 2017; Mercer et al. 1999).

The six types of student learning patterns in class-

room discussions are named Vocal-Acting (VA), Vocal-Feeling (VF), Vocal-Cog-

nizing (VC), Silent-Acting (SA), Silent-Feeling (SF) and Silent-Cognizing (SC).