Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

Leading Discussion

You will be working with three other students in leading a class discussion on your group topic.

Instructions: Through well-thought out questions and stimulating prompts, engage your classmates in talking about the chosen topic. This—getting a conversation going, keeping it flowing, and engaging as many of your friends as possible—is critical as it is the whole point of the exercise.

Assessment: How effective and rewarding your session is will primarily depend on your ability to start the conversation and keep it going as well as how successfully you have inspired every one of your classmates to jump in and engage.

Moreover, the quality of the conversation, the "meat" and difficulty of the material, and the level of discourse (vocabulary, pronunciation, knowledge, insight, etc.) achieved contribute to how satisfactory your session is.

Good luck!

Leading Discussion Guidelines

• Why Discuss?
  In brainstorming sessions students have mentioned various real-life situations when conversation and discussion is useful like meeting new people, getting a job, negotiating business, completing a project, asking for help and flirting. One might say that in each of these cases, discussion helps you to
• learn something new
• build relationships
• achieve a goal
• Characteristics of Good Discussion
  Think about these qualities and how such an environment and conducts can be fostered during your session.
• Environment
• Safe space: The discussion should be a safe place where people feel they can share their ideas sincerely without being unfairly judged, attacked or ridiculed.
• Seating: Sitting in a circle allows everyone to be seen and heard more easily.
• Audio-visual: Making sure that visual aids and media equipment you will use during discussion are ready, operates properly and is clearly visual and audible helps the discussion run smoothly.
• Content
  We strive to be open-minded critical and creative and might say any topic is worth discussing, but consider why we discuss and the qualities that make discussion exciting and rewarding. With this in mind, what you choose to talk about might encourage
• meaningful conversation
• broader horizons
• new insights
• open input from individuals
• Participants and Facilitators
• active listening
• adding value with your comments
• being sincere
• being respectful
• being open-minded
• natural turntaking
• being attentive to body language
• acknowledge others' ideas
• Rules and Roles
• Preparation
• Read the novel and article and watch the video clips before class.
• Note down questions or ideas about the reading and listening to share in class.
• Familiarize yourself with relevant issues, vocabulary and background information.
• Facilitators (discussion leaders)
• Have a goal: Why does your topic need discussing? What do you hope to achieve with the interaction your classmates can provide?
• Introduce the topic.
• Link the topic to perspectives in the novel, the reading, the listening, and your experiences and ideas.
• Provide relevant background, information, and vocabulary.
• Initiate discussion; get the ball rolling.
• Listen actively.
• Ask questions that encourage critical engagement with and creative exploration of the topic ex. questions that prompt looking at issues from different angles, considering different individuals/parties/sectors involved, a variety of perspectives, roles, advantages, and limitations, probing underlying assumptions, possible solutions or options.
• Clarify unclear contributions ex. by rephrasing, requesting explanation of unfamiliar ideas or terms.
• Give positive feedback and constructive criticism.
• Connect, contrast ideas.
• Encourage everyone to share their ideas and interact with others' while being sensitive to individual styles and personalities.
• Allow participants to respond directly to each other.
• Encourage development of an idea or issue brought up with pertinent follow up questions.
• Bring the group back on track if discussion strays too far afield.
• Move to a fresh point if discussion gets repetitive or rambling.
• Keep time.
• Wrap up the discussion.
• Participants
• Voice your questions, information, ideas and give others a chance to speak.
• Listen carefully, take notes to keep track of points made and issues unexplored.
• Respect facilitators' lead.
• Use appropriate language.
• Keep an open mind.
• Time: 7 minutes per group-led discussion session

Facilitating Discussion Links

• "Role of the Participants," Study Circles
• Ann Porteus, "Roles People Play in Groups," Stanford University
• "Facilitating Discussions," Tufts University (video clip, 3:31 min.)

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Last updated November 11, 2018