MR. D'S NOTES ON TEACHING
Rev. Stanley L. Derickson Ph.D.
COPYRIGHT 2001

Chapter 13

DISCUSSION

The discussion method has been termed "pooled ignorance.”

Generally those using such terminology have never been very successful at handling a group discussion on their own or fail to properly understand the methodology of it and thus feel they must demean the method.

There is a danger in this method upon which those terming it "pooled ignorance" base their accusations. We will see this in the section on methodology.

Discussion is the thought of taking a topic and seeking to investigate all options to it with an ultimate goal to reach a mutual understanding of the topic.

Christ at times asked questions that were designed to make the person think and respond if not verbally at least mentally.

Matt. 9:5 "For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?" WHICH IS EASIER?

Matt. 16:13-15 "Who do men say that the Son of man is?" His next question was "Who do you say that I am?"

If He had asked, the last question only there wouldn't have been anywhere near as much thought on the part of the listener.

ADVANTAGES OF THE METHOD

1. You have interaction between the students themselves as well as with the teacher. Not only will you have the student’s attention, but there will be a growing together of the group and there will develop a greater freedom to interact on a personal basis.

2. There will be much more participation and activity to keep the students awake!

3. The method causes several things in the students:

a. Thinking - they must consider what has been ask - what has been said - what his thoughts are on the information heard - etc.

b. Listening - they will have to pay attention to the whole session if he is to learn and understand what is going on. This attention will also dictate their willingness to interact personally on a verbal basis - they will want to be sure they are on target with comments.

c. Communication - they will have to communicate their own thoughts on the subject in a manner so as to make those listening to understand.

d. Problem solving - they will learn different ways in which they can approach problems and solutions.

e. Study - if used correctly this method will stir the student to want to study so that they will have proof for his/her view and know what the other views might bring up. This of course assumes the student is given the topics before the sessions convene.

4. It will help the teacher to uncover any misunderstanding that the students might have. As the person verbalizes a wrong concept the teacher can help them to see where they are incorrect in their thinking.

5. It quite often uncovers personal needs in the student's lives that they would not normally share.

6. It will give opportunity to share personal experiences and how the students faced them. This can be a very good learning experience for others that might be facing the same problems.

DISADVANTAGES OF THE METHOD

1. There may be in some cases a limiting in the amount of material that can be given, however I personally feel that by mixing a small amount of lecture in with the discussion as you go you can cover just about as much material as with other methods. Certainly you can cover more with this mix than with debate, forum, panel, and buzz group methods. The lecture might give freedom to convey more information.

2. There may be lots of sidetracks that are wasted time. More will be said later about sidetracks.

3. A few may monopolize the discussion.

CONSIDERATIONS

1. The type of group you are working with will determine whether you want to use this method or not.

If working in a Bible study with people from five different denominations the discussion method would be similar to Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun. You WILL BE SHOT DOWN!

2. Immature Christians will work well with the method if they have some knowledge of the topic from reading or previous teaching, however without some knowledge they will be very limited in discussion.

3. Very quiet people may not relate well to this method though it also tends to draw them out as times goes on - they will want to be a part of the group - face it, they have ideas too and will want to share them. These people are also at times very hard to draw into the discussion, yet you should endeavor to include all students in the discussion.

4. Larger groups may not discuss as readily yet some will. I taught a large Sunday School class one Sunday. The class was about 75 and we had a very excellent time of discussion and interaction. They knew each other quite well which helped. The topic of discussion was also quite interesting which assisted the time of learning.

In the larger group you may not have as much interaction between students - it is more student to teacher interaction, however not necessarily.

METHOD

1. Prepare as well as if you were going to lecture. In the area of organization be prepared! If you do not know where you are going you will never get there. I tend toward over preparation due to the fact that I desire to know what all might be brought up so that I can have an intelligent reaction prepared.

2. You need to have a definite plan to your lesson so that you do not become the "pooled ignorance" that we mentioned earlier. If you have no plan and fail to prepare properly then you will have a group of X number of students that are going X number of different directions and no one knows where the goal or end is. This indeed can become "pooled ignorance.”

3. Try to include all students in some way. Asking nonthreatening questions of those that are hanging back might help.

Questions like:

a. Would you explain the 2nd law of thermal dynamics to us in fifty words or less? NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!

b. What do you think about that?

c. How do you feel about that?

d. Do you have any comments on what we've said?

Years ago my wife and I were in a liberal church for Sunday School and they topic was the great commission. The discussion had discussed every topic possible except the thought of missions and the extension of the Gospel. At one point late in the class the teacher turned to me and asked what I thought. That may have been the last time she asked that question in a class - I shared many thoughts concerning the Gospel and our need to share it with the world.

4. Keep your questions completely void of information that would give the answer - keep them headed toward the answer but don't give it to them unless they just can't come up with it. Keep them guessing as to what you think. Keep the questions as thought provoking as possible. At times playing the devil's advocate in questions will get discussion started.

Design questions to help them find the answers. At times students will have some facts but do not know exactly how to apply those facts to find a solution. Don't just give them the information they need, but question in the direction that they need to move and help them find the answer themselves.

Questions should be asked to help them clarify any unclear areas that might arise.

ATTENTION! DO NOT FAIL TO WRITE THIS DOWN! DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS THAT CAN BE ANSWERED YES OR NO! YOU WILL PAY THE PRICE OF SILENCE IF YOU DO AND THAT IN THE DISCUSSION METHOD OF TEACHING IS AKIN TO THE QUARTERBACK DROPPING THE FOOTBALL JUST BEFORE HE CROSSES INTO THE END ZONE IN THE LAST TWO SECONDS OF THE SUPER BOWL GAME! DON'T DO IT!

5. Pit people against each other to stir up further thought and discussion yet do not antagonize people. If you feel someone is getting frustrated cool it down by giving them time to explain what they are getting at.

6. Sidetracks are not uncommon to say the least however give due consideration to them. Some people say they dislike discussion because of the possibility of side tracks. At times a sidetrack may be present because someone has a real question in that area. You as the teacher must evaluate the moment on a moment’s notice. Is this worthwhile or a waste of time?

At times you can go back to the subject if you are in question and see if the person returns to the sidetrack. If they do, it might be good to take time to discuss it. Sidetracks often will head down a track that you as the super intellectual super prepared teacher missed. Maybe it is a very needed avenue to pursue!

Be very sensitive to side tracks for they may lead to some very good learning experiences not only for the student but also for the Teacher. Quite often after a good discussion I find myself jotting down notes of things and thoughts that I want to include in my notes for future reference.

7. Be sure in your conclusion to have a statement of where you have taken them so that those that missed you will catch up. Usually if you have done your homework properly all students will be tracking with you if you keep it on their level of thought and learning.

8. If you wind up with a monopolizer or two you have a problem. These are people that have all the answers and they take half your class period to tell you about it. If you get two monopolizers on opposing sides, you have lost the next two class sessions.

This is a problem but if you gently cut them off a time or two they will begin to shorten up their comments.

You won't run into very many of these people that won't realize that they are being to long. They normally realize it on their own and curtail their own comments.

9. Introduce your subject well. At times a brief comment or two about the opposing lines of thinking on the subject will help to get things rolling.

10. The ultimate problem probably for the discussion method, short of the possibility that there is of no discussion, is when you have ask a question and the response was totally incorrect.

Q. What do you do in this situation? Ask them to state it another way. This gives them time to be sure you have understood correctly and also time for you to think quickly on your feet. PANIC! WHAT NOW?

One method is to ask the class if they see the point the person is getting at or some other generic question that puts the monkey on the classes back.

The class can disagree quite easily and no one will think about it however IF THE TEACHER DISAGREES THERE CAN BE HURT FEELINGS!

If the class doesn't clear it up you might ask how a particular verse relates to that line of thinking. This again places the class as a possible correction instrument.

After these steps if it still isn't resolved, you often can step in and share some verses that correct the line of thought. Be careful but it can work nicely.

11. The next important thing to good preparation and good questions is good listening. You must be on your toes to hear what they are saying! If you aren't listening, you will not know what is going on in the class. Listening opens the teacher to new information that might even challenge his own thinking - even bring him to change his mind on some things. YOU MIGHT EVEN LEARN SOMETHING!

Listening allows you to respond intelligently to the thoughts expressed. Listening gives the student the idea that you are interested in what they have to say.

12. When you ask questions it is good for you to recap and/or restate the answers so that everyone hears it. Also the student will know that you have understood them.

Be careful however not to change what the person says. Putting it into different words is good but changing the meaning of the statement will kill discussion very quickly.

We had a pastor that would ask a question and if the answer wasn't just what he wanted he would reword it in a way that he could answer his own question. At times he was very rude about it. From that point on he had a very hard time getting people to interact in his classes.

13. When the student asks you a question think it over for a moment. Is this a question that the class could answer? If so turn them lose with it. Just be sure the answer is forth coming in class.

If the class cannot answer the question then see if you can bring up a question that would jog thinking toward the answer. If you nor the class know the answer be sure to promise to find one and DO IT!

At times questions will be direct enough or of a type that you will want to answer them yourself immediately.

If a question is asked that is not quite on target for the topic you might ask "Why do you ask?" Sometimes people will have a problem that they don't want to verbalize and they will hedge the issue with a not quite on target questions. These are questions that are somewhat related to the discussion but not really. They are really about something else that really isn't what they want to talk about anyway. When you hear one, you will know it.

14. Be enthusiastic and friendly!

15. Keep YOUR talking to a minimum yet maintain control of the class. The best is if you can limit your own talking to about 20% of the class time. This would be in a pure discussion situation.

16. Keep the Word of God involved as much as possible. I personally do not tolerate "The Bible says" statements unless I know it does for a fact say that. Even then I like to try to put a reference to it before leaving the subject. Ask for references. If the person doesn't have a reference then someone else might. If no reference is found, relegate the comment to a "maybe truth" situation by saying that we need to look up a reference on that before we include that in our thinking or "I'm not sure about that one - we should check it out."

At the same time keep this standard for yourself. If you want God to say something - be sure that He did!

17. Do not argue with an opinion that you have asked for. You can, by questions call opinions into question by the group but try your best not to be outwardly judgmental of what people say.

18. Silence in a discussion may mean failure on your part or it may well mean you just can't hear the thinking going on.

When you ask a question wait for thought processes to kick out an answer. You can fill these little dead spaces with small talk about the subject or at times maybe even fill in with some of the material you have to share with them that you can't share through discussion.

19. Restatement of your questions that seem to be failing may help to clarify what you are trying to get at.

20. Do not demand that all comply with your line of thinking for they may not. Let them go home and think about all that has transpired.

Much information and many ideas can be exchanged in discussion and it may take time to soak in and change a mind.