Discussion

By the CIRTL Diversity Team.

Class discussion or small group discussions can be used to accomplish a variety of learning goals. Discussion is a primary form of active learning, and will often help students understand and remember material better than a simple lecture would. Many courses have a "discussion section" separate from a "lecture section" or "lab section." Some class sizes are small enough for the instructor to conduct class periods as group discussions. In larger classes, it might take time to break the class into small groups for discussion. Although parts of this section speak directly to you as if you were leading a semester long discussion section, the information throughout the section is valuable for any type of class discussion. The collaborative exploration of concepts and ideas by a diverse group of students in a safe and fair environment can lead to tremendous student learning.