When we’re using discussion in the classroom, we need to decide how much control we want.

There are four areas to think about when deciding on the right level of control for a particular class.

These are: what is being discussed; how it is being discussed; when it is being discussed; and who is discussing it.

We’ll look at each in turn.

What is being discussed?

In many cases the teacher will decide what is being discussed and will link it to the lesson topic.

When planning, they will identify a particular area of the topic that is conducive to discussion and plan an appropriate activity.

This will involve choosing stimulus material, a pre-discussion task, or a question that learners will be expected to debate.

There are thus two choices:

• What topic is going to be discussed?
• What specific part of that topic is the discussion going to focus on?

There is an alternative approach.

It can be rewarding, on occasion, to leave it to pupils to decide the discussion topic.

The risk is that those areas the teacher believes are important may be ignored.

The benefit is that learners will choose what they believe to be important or interesting and are likely to be highly motivated as a result.

Of course, this does mean ceding control.

But the positives are often worth it.

Having some kind of structure to elicit ideas from learners is helpful.

This could be an extended, formal process such as in the Philosophy for Children (P4C) model, or a short one like asking learners to think of ideas based around a couple of generic question cues (What do you think is interesting about this topic? What area of this topic should we talk more about?).

From here, there are two options.

First, you can pick one of the ideas that learners have suggested and use this as the basis of a discussion. This means you take back a bit of control.

Alternatively, take three or four of the suggestions learners have made and ask the class to vote on which one they would most like to discuss. This gives the control back to learners.

How is it to be discussed?

• With a High level of control

You have specific aims for the discussion, and these are key.

This means you plan all your timings in advance and know exactly how the activity is to run.

You may have prepared a list of questions that you want learners to have discussed by the end of the activity.

There may also be certain teaching points you want to make and which you plan to draw out whether or not an opportunity arises.

• With a Medium level of control

You have aims for the discussion and feel these can be achieved through a variety of means.

You have planned some timings but remain flexible. You give some freedom, anticipating that learners may take the discussion in a direction you didn’t expect.

You have some prompts ready to guide the discussion toward certain areas, but you are happy for learners to make their own way once you have set them off in a general direction.

• With a Low level of control

You have broad aims for the discussion.

You trust your learners and are confident they can discuss with care and skill despite not having a tight structure in which to work.

You act as a facilitator and let learners lead the way.

You may invite one or more learners to lead the discussion or allow the class, groups or pairs to manage themselves independently.

When is it to be discussed?

Generally, the teacher will expect all learners to be engaged in discussion at the same time, whether that discussion is in pairs, groups or as a whole class.

On occasion, learners may be asked to work through a range of activities or tasks independent of the teacher, in groups or in pairs.

In such cases it is up to the learners to decide in what order they approach their work.

If discussion is included on the list of things to do, learners will choose when to do it.

In general though, the teacher will maintain tight control over when discussion takes place.

Who is to discuss it?

The choice here revolves around whether you want paired, group, or whole-class discussion.

The latter is likely to involve the greatest level of control as, in most cases, it is the teacher who controls the discussion and indicates whose turn it is to speak.

This is true even when if you use lots of bouncing to facilitate learner-learner interactions because, if not, there is the risk that the discussion descends into a clamour of competing voices.

The teacher does not have to interject their own voice to control who speaks.

It can be done non-verbally with an outstretched palm or the nod of a head.

Paired discussion means the teacher still exerts a reasonably strong level of control.

This is because each pair is obliged to speak to one another, with it being difficult for any individual to avoid taking part.

If they do, then their partner will be prevented from engaging in discussion.

Such a situation is easy for the teacher to spot. Intervention can follow to redirect the disengaged learner back onto task.

A pitfall that is harder to identify involves two learners giving the appearance of completing the task when, in fact, they are speaking about something other than the work.

The best way to avoid this happening is through judicious pairings in which those liable to go off topic and those who are close friends are kept apart.

Group discussion sees the teacher ceding more control than in the previous two cases.

Even if groups are kept to reasonable sizes (three to five is recommended) to ensure there is an onus on all members to participate, the risk remains that some learners will ‘sit it out’, leaving others to do the work.

Further, because there is an expectation that not everyone in a group will be talking at the same time, it is harder to pick out pupils who are not engaging with the task.

The teacher will have to be more vigilant to ensure that everyone stays on task.

They may have to accept that it is difficult to guarantee one hundred percent compliance.

If that is the case, then the question becomes one of costs and benefits:

• Do the benefits of group discussion with this class outweigh the potential costs?

If the answer is ‘yes’ then the ceding of control can be happily accepted.

If the answer is ‘no’ then paired or whole-class discussion may be a better option.