Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am curious to hear stories/experiences with student centered/lead discussion-based learning models in a high school setting. In one of my grad classes this semester, the professor used this model and I absolutely loved it. I’m curious if this would work in a larger high school class, specifically US Government for juniors and seniors.
Essentially, professor designed the curriculum and syllabus with predetermined topics, readings, and various assignments as normal. On the first night of class, each of us had to sign-up for a different week/topic and when that week came, we lead the lesson and mediated the discussion in place of the instructor. The assignment was quite broad with a general rubric and just 3 requirements; we had a few different options when it came to presenting the material (focusing on one specific reading of several, elaborating on a quote that spoke to us, general lesson themes/key points, etc.), we followed up our presentations with 5-10 discussion questions which we mediated fishbowl style, and wrote a formal paper.
Obviously, in a class of 30+ students meeting daily over 16 weeks, individual weekly topics are not realistic. Groups/pods of 3-4 students (or more) would be more ideal, with the goal of grouping students of different styles and abilities together so that each student can find a role in the group that suits their own learning and pushes them, but not too far out of comfort to the point of shutting down. My objective here is to normalize the idea of students taking the lead in discussions and the instructor stepping back to let them on a very regular basis, for more than just presentation projects at the end of the semester.
In a perfect scenario, we would have normal instructor-lead lessons & discussions daily, with one pod taking over for the class period once every 1-2 weeks over the course of the semester. Is this a realistic idea for this age, or am I reaching? I feel like a government class is the perfect setting to let the students learn how to discuss and (civilly) disagree/debate with one another. I would be demonstrating the format and expectations myself daily and would be ready to jump in at any point to diffuse and redirect if things got rowdy or confrontational or too controversial.
Any thoughts, considerations, or concerns anyone might have about this would be very appreciated, especially if you’ve done this or similar successfully yourself!
I would think it would be very dependent on the students you have. If you have a group of highly motivated, intelligent, and mature students, they'd probably gain a lot out of it. And I would think maturity, the ability to discuss potentially sensitive subjects in a civil manner, is most important. My kids had a few teachers who tried in some classes. Drawbacks were:
a. Some kids just won't participate. Both our kids got frustrated to be assigned to a group where the other kids basically did nothing and depended on them to carry the load.
b. Some kids, just like some adults, cannot debate on facts and get angry if someone disagrees with them.
c. Some kids like to sit in the back and disrupt the proceedings just for the fun of it.
For them it just seemed to work better in classes with fewer kids where every kid wanted to be there.
It's a worthwhile goal to have kids take the lead in a class. I would suggest giving kids the option of signing up to lead a discussion as an individual, or with one or two others. I'd also be really clear about what is expected (less broad than your grad class), and maybe not tie leading the discussion with a written component other than their facilitation notes, at least the first time. I like the idea of having a couple of options of how to participate - maybe one might be to allow the facilitator to collect people's thoughts on a topic and then sharing, for the kids who are either really shy or don't really know how to talk about the concepts. You should also expect that some discussions will work better than others, and that's OK - think of it as a formative rather than summative assessment, at least the first time through.
It is a good tool to have and can be quite successful at teaching certain types of skills and content. Much like other trendy methods such as problem/project based learning it is not a replacement for more traditional methods like direct instruction.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
