Blog #2: "Discussion as a Way of Teaching"

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When it comes to the specifics of speaking and listening, Brookfield's "Discussion as a Way of Teaching" explored all the different ways of doing this. I will start by saying, I had no idea that there are so many ways to have a discussion and all the different people that are involved (or should be) in a discussion. One of the main things that stuck out to me while reading this were the specific roles that are involved in a conversation. There were 15 different roles in this section. It makes me question if we need all of these roles in order to have a smart and beneficial conversation with each other, specifically in the classroom. The "Devil's Advocate" for one, is supposed to counter the conversation that would be taking place in the current state. In class discussions that I remember having, it always made for an eye opening discussion when someone makes us consider the point we are talking about. I also found the "Questioning to Keep Discussion Going" section at the end was interesting. We talked about in class last Wednesday just how long somebody will wait until they answer their own question or the discussion ends. The article states so many different ways to keep the discussion from dying. Going along with that, there are certain questions that will go with different subjects. You can ask your students questions that ask for more evidence, questions that ask for clarification, linking/extension questions, summary/synthesis questions, etc. When we ask more questions, we as teacher's can keep the discussion going and keep from awkward silences and a possible change of subject. If there are still questions to be asked and certain roles of students that have not done their part (mentioned above), then there is still so much more of a conversation to be had. While I found many more parts of this article interesting, these are the two that stuck out to me the most.

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