Classroom Discussion

Classroom discussion means that expressing the thoughts between the teacher and student or student and student on some specific topic.  There are at least 3 important instructional objectives of this method. It improves students’ thinking because when they are sharing their own thoughts, they need to be prepared and express effectively. It also improves student involvement and engagement because when they are in discussion, they are in interaction and there will be a connection between the students. This connection improves them. Also, their communication skills are also improved by the discussion method, because when they are talking, they need to be clear and effective. To do that they need to develop their thinking process. 

If you use this type in your class as a teacher, firstly you need to have a clear question to start the discussion. The question can be better if its’ type is about real life.  Before asking the question to the students, you need to be prepared. I mean you should have a plan for the discussion. In that plan, you should think the purpose of the question, think the students if the question is proper for them or not and choose an instructional approach. When you ask the question to the student, you should wait for the students’ response. This is called wait-time and according to the researchers, you should wait at least 3 seconds for that. Also, the seating arrangement is also important factor for discussion time in the classes. The U shape or Circle shape is better because in these shapes, students can be in an interaction and show the others easily when someone talks. When the students are talking, you should listen the student and record their sentences. At the end, you should give an explanation about the question and express your ideas.

Problem-Based Learning

       Todays’ topic is problem-based learning and I will give you some information what is it and its’ features. In that type of learning, the students do investigation on some topic which was given by the teacher and find the solutions. After, the found information will be presented by the group members. If you use this method in your class, the topic should be clear and real life problems. With the real life problems, students realize the problem and learn better. When they realize the problem, they try to find solutions to that problem. To do that, they need to think and find the problems. That is, they gain thinking and problem solving skills which are too important factors in todays’ world. For the specific one topic, everyone in the group have some tasks. That is, firstly individual works start. Their individual and independent learning skills will be good enough at the end of the work. After they brings the information individually, all group members collect the information and put them together. So, their collaborative skills are also developed.  

           As a teacher, you should act like a facilitator. To act like that, you should firstly decide the goals and objectives. After you should design appropriate problem situations and organize the resources and plan logistics. To go in deep as a teacher, you should;

• ·         Direct your students to the problem
• ·         Organize your students to start the project
• ·         Support independent and group investigation
• ·         Develop and present man-made and products
• ·         Analyze and evaluate the work process

        
        Also, there can be some multitask situations, you should deal with that situations and be clear to the students.

Cooperative Learning

       There should be interaction between the students and the students should share their own ideas. The cooperative learning includes these and set the interaction between the students. In the cooperative learning, different grade level students come together and do their tasks together. So low level grade students can get help from the high grade level students and this can be inspiring for them. This is helpful for low level grade students, also this is helpful for high level student because when they are trying to help low level students, they should think deeper and be clear. That’s why they pay attention to these features and try to gain them. They gain an academic features of teaching. Also, there are students together from different culture, race, social class or ability. So the students learn also different types of person skills. They can broaden their horizons. Because, people from the different cultures have some specific personal features and skills. For the specific task during the instruction, they bring different information together and create an effective task.

Moreover, this learning method teaches the students cooperation and collaboration which are critical skills in todays’ world. They need to share their ideas and reach a common result according to everyone’s’ ideas. In that way, the students also learn respect term because if one student don’t like the other students’ idea, he/she know that there can be different ideas and the students should show respect others. As a result, this learning method gives students;

•  Academic Achievement
•  Tolerance and Acceptance of diversity
•   Social Skills