15

COMMENT ————} GROUP DISCUSSION

During the ensuing semester a weekly article on some technique of teaching
will appear in these pages. Gene McIntyre will author them and would like
to know if they prove helpful to you. This first installment in a series
of fourteen articles addresses itself to Group Discussion.

What ig a group discussion?

Group discussion is purposeful conversation and deliberation about a topic
of mutual interest or common concern among six to 20 participants under
the guidance of a participant called a leader.

Group discussion is a technique that offers maximum opportunity for the
individual learner to share his ideas and learning experiences with
others. '

It is important that the group discuss topics that lend themselves to

the discussion technique. A discussion topic meets the following criteria:

l. It interests the group membership;

2. It is possible for the membership to have, or acquire, enough
information to discuss it meaningfully;

3. Pt is clearly worded and understood;

4. It must suggest divergent points of view.*

™ Oftentimes, a discussion to decide "what" will be discussed is necessary
to meet all points in the above criteria.

What is a rationale for group discussion?

If you want your students to do more than regurgitate your words and ideas,
that is, think, decision make, and problem solve, then the limited time

the instructor has for face-to-face confrontation with his students is too
valuable to waste simply transmitting information. Instead, this time
should be used to perform the more important job of demonstrating how

an educated person reasons and to guide the student as he learns how to
perform intellectual operations and think for himself. If the student is
to learn these behaviours, then he must practice them and know that he

has done so effectively.

elhe discussion technique is an effective method for providing the student
with both the practice and necessary feedback about his intellectual per-
formance. A properly conducted, i.e., well planned and group supported,
discussion can generate student interest, force the students to be active
mentally, and stimulate more relevant student thinking and problem solving.
If the discussion provides for practice in critical thinking in a variety
of contexts, it can increase the student's ability to transfer what he has