Why Teachers Must Encourage Students to Participate in Class Discussion Actively?
While taking classes or delivering lectures, teachers primarily focus on two important things — explaining concepts and dictating notes. Many teachers ignore the significance of discussion as one of the most important elements of a positive classroom environment. Also, they do not encourage students to participate in class discussions actively. But a number of studies suggest that a student cannot retain factual knowledge and improve exam performance without participating in class discussions regularly and actively.
According to TeachingonPurpose.org, “Discussion in classrooms makes learning more interactive and helps students develop skills that cannot be taught in a traditional lecture format. Large group discussion is not a perfect teaching strategy and neither is a small group discussion, but there are things educators can do to improve the practical usage of discussion in the classroom.” There are a number of reasons why every teacher must facilitate class discussions regularly and encourage students to participate in class discussions actively.
7 Reasons Why Teachers Must Encourage Students to Participate in Class Discussion
1. Keep Students Interested and Engaged
No teacher can make students focus on the lecture without keeping them interested and engaged. The smarter teachers use classroom discussion as a powerful tool to keep students interested and engaged. Instead of explaining concepts and topics, they make students connect with the content by asking relevant questions at regular intervals. These questions keep students engaged by making them think and wonder.
2. Improve Knowledge Retention
A student cannot improve her exam grades without retaining the knowledge acquired during a class or lecture. A number of studies have highlighted the effectiveness of classroom discussion in increasing knowledge retention. According to ResearchGate.net, knowledge retention is better following an interactive teaching style and interactive discussion sessions. A teacher can help students to retain knowledge and improve exam performance by facilitating discussions in the classroom.
3. Acquire Conceptual and Procedural Knowledge
When a teacher-facilitated discussion in the classroom, it becomes easier for students to understand and discuss various aspects of a topic or concept. The questions asked by students make the teacher explain the concept from varied perspectives. These questions further help the teacher to explain the topic clearly and the students to understand the topic clearly. Hence, teachers can use classroom discussions as a technique to make students acquire both conceptual and procedural knowledge.
4. Assess Students’ Understanding
The teaching styles differ from one teacher to another. But each teacher wants to make students understand a topic clearly and elaborately. The students cannot know if the students understand the concepts without asking questions. As students answer the questions, the teacher can assess their understanding accurately. The teacher also gets an opportunity to share additional information and correct mistakes.
5. Promote Class Preparation
The smarter teachers help students to acquire and retain knowledge by promoting class preparation. They use classroom discussion as a tool to encourage students to prepare for the class in advance. When a teacher encourages students to participate in class discussions actively, the students feel motivated to read the subject or topic before attending the class. The preparation helps students to focus on the topic and improve exam grades.
6. Develop Collaborative Learning
According to Elon University, discussion in the classroom develops the habit of collaborative learning. While participating in discussions, a student interacts with both teacher and classmates. Hence, the students understand the concept and solve problems as part of the group. Collaborate learning contributes immensely towards making students develop critical thinking, problem-solving skills, interpersonal relationships, and self-management skills.
7. Strengthen Interpersonal Communication Skills
According to PsychologyToday.com, “Communicating your ideas clearly and presenting them openly in a public forum is an essential component of success across several domains of life.” The classroom discussions prepare students to become successful professionally by eliminating the fear of public speaking. When a student participates in class discussions actively, she can stand in front of an audience and deliver a speech confidently.
Often teachers find it challenging to facilitate call discussion due to constraints related to time. But the teachers can easily facilitate call discussion by sharing notes instead of dictating notes. When a teacher does not dictate notes in a class, it becomes easier for her to allocate more time to class discussion. The online platform provided by LectureNotes.in helps teachers to share class notes and lecture notes with a large number of students over the internet.
