Overview of Classroom Discssion

Classroom discussion and discourse are key ingredients for enhancing student thinking and uniting the cognitive and social aspects of learning. When experienced teachers refer to classroom discourse, they often use the label discussion to describe what they are doing. Classroom discussions are characterized by students and teachers talking about academic materials and by students willingly displaying their thinking processes publicly.

Discussions are used to help students construct their own understanding and to improve communication and thinking skills.

Discussion are used by teachers to achieve at least three important instructional objectives :

• Discussion improves students’ thinking and helps them construct their own understanding of academic content. Discussing a topic helps students strengthen and extend their knowledge of the topic and increase their ability to think about it.
• Discussion promotes student involvement and engagement. It gives students public opportunities to talk about and play with their own ideas and provides motivation to engage in discourse beyond the classroom.
• Discussion is used by teachers to help students learn important communication skills and thinking processes. Because discussions are public, they provide a means for a teacher to find out what students are thinking and how they are processing the ideas and information being taught.