Discussion as a Way of Teaching

The very first section of Brookefield's article grabbed my attention when he was discussing why conversations fail. I also just decided to leave the word "conversation" since I used it incorrectly in the context of this article. Brookefield first begins with making the distinction between a conversation and a discussion, which is important to understand while continuing through the article. Some of the reasons why DISCUSSIONS fail seem to be obvious, but other points that he made I had not even thought of before. I had not really considered the point he labels as "rewards system askew." I have a general idea of what this means but I will be bringing this point up during the class discussion to get more clarification and depth on this specific reason why discussions fail.

I also liked section 15 in this article which is about the critical incident questionnaire. I know this is not as interesting as some of the other techniques, but it does cut straight to the point about many different aspects of the discussion which contribute to either the failure or success of that discussion.. For me, the answers to these questions would be very valuable to me from my students. They could help me to identify, in basic terms, what went well and what did not during the discussion. What has value and what does not. This strategy seems like a way to assess the discussion based on the students' responses. As a side note, I also like how the questions are clear in stating that it could be either the student or the teacher that drives the responses for that individual. This section goes well with the next section as well which talks about a learning audit. The three straight forward questions are simple to understand and have a lot of value within them. Though they are simple questions they can have very complex and deep answers as well as instantly show the individual learning the value of what they have just learned.

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