Back in the day, educators believed that making students memorize vocabulary words, history dates, and other facts was the key to learning. Thankfully, we’ve come a long way since then. Today, creating a student-centered classroom environment is widely regarded as the most effective method of learning. By leading discussions and taking ownership over your own education, you will practice being self-motivated and self-reliant. Simultaneously, the group format of the classroom will help build communication and team-player skills. Obviously, these are skills and leadership experiences that employers and graduate schools look for in their applicants — so this is a great starting place to practice.

What do I need to do when I’m a teacher?

You and your partner(s) will be expected to lead a discussion integrating all source materials (readings, podcasts, videos) assigned for the day.

First, you need to demonstrate that you understand the basic elements of the materials and can communicate those elements crisply, completely, and accurately to your classmates (e.g., central thesis of the source material, claims used to support said thesis).

Second, you need to demonstrate that you can critically discuss each material—that means you pose critical thinking questions and can answer these cogently and crisply, and in plain (jargon-free) English. It also means that you do the same thing when someone asks you a question or offers a comment.

<aside> ⚠️ Based on feedback from the first two groups to present, I have created Lesson Plan templates for you and your group to use. The lesson plan has space for communal notes, potential discussion questions, learning objectives, etc.

1️⃣ Part 1: The Speed Review

Instructions. This part of your presentation should be very brief (1-2 minutes per reading/video/podcast) as you can assume that your classmates have read the article/watched the video/listened to the podcast, but we want to make sure we are all on the same page. Below is a guide for the information you could present to get us all up to speed. Depending on the direction of the discussion question you may want to emphasize certain aspects below more or less (e.g., you might want to critique the discrepancy between the methodology and the conclusions the authors draw from their findings).

Elements of an Article for Consideration in Speed Review

<aside> 🏃🏼 Tips for Presenting the Speed Review

The speed review is primarily there to help YOU and your co-presenter prepare for the construction of the discussion questions. For example, being familiar with the general and specific research questions can help you better assess whether any discrepancies between the two are meaningful. Sometimes authors might frame their question around what we already know, but you shouldn’t take that at face value. Do we actually know what they say we know? What is that knowledge based on? Theorizing or empirical work - field or experiment research?

⚠️ To that end, you should not present every bit of information under the “Elements of an Article for Consideration in Speed Review” above, but you should be able to speak about each of these if needed. You should present only what is most relevant and helpful to set the class up for success in answering your discussion question. Think of the speed review as a way to contextualize the discussion you want us to have.

If you’re going to have us consider the methodological and conceptual strengths and weaknesses of the work, you might want to direct our attention to the specific aspects of the methodology we will discuss or the explicit or implicit claims the authors are asking us to accept, etc.

⚠️  I discourage the use of powerpoint for this speed review. But you may use slides to present a figure or graph, if relevant.

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2️⃣ Part 2: Discussion Questions and Facilitation

Instructions. To prepare for your discussion, you must:

  1. Opening Statement. What comments, if any, will you make to introduce the discussion? Why? How do you expect the discussion to emerge following the opener’s initial response?
  2. Outline your learning objectives (LOs). Present these to students at the beginning of the class.
  3. Choose 3-5 critical thinking (CT) stems from the table handout below
  4. Create 3-5 questions that you think best represent the depth of understanding and your ability to critically analyze the source material, and answer each of your questions. In your own responses to each question, you should be able articulate your own position before hearing everyone elses’ thoughts to your question.
  5. Closing Statement. End your discussion with some a synthesis of what was discussed and any closing thoughts as they relate to your LOs.
  6. Reflection Question. Create a self-reflection question that students respond to on their own in the last 2-4 minutes of class. This allows students time to debrief and reflect on what they learned or what questions they may still have is important (Zinn & Saville, 2008). Example questions include: “What is one idea you are still unsure about today? What is one idea you found the most interesting? What was the biggest thing you learned today? What questions do you still have about X? What idea did you find the most related to your own experiences?”

<aside> 👉🏼 Note. You must present your discussion questions. Please avoid having a script or reading off your slides. This assignment will teach you how to have thoughtful conversation with others as you take us all through your critical thinking on the reading. Please do not divide questions amongst yourselves so that only one of you is capable of leading the discussion on select questions. You should both be well-equipped to jump in with comments and help each other out.

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Table of Critical Thinking Stems

<aside> 👉🏻 Please note you are required to read the tips below prior to leading discussion. We can thank Prof. Kornell for several of the tips below which I have adapted for our class.

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📍Tips for leading a discussion

📍 How to ask a good question

📍 Tips for Using Critical Thinking Stems

📍How to engage and motivate your peers