The effects of classroom discussions for teachers and students By: Cameron Riley

Classroom discussions happen often in schools, especially in middle school and high school. Our English class had six recent classroom discussions about different topics that related to the book that we are reading called “The Lord of the Flies”. Topics that were discussed in class ranged from brutal murder, human nature and child psychopaths. The discussions were very impactful personally.

The discussions had me look at the novel from different angles and changed my viewpoint relating to some parts of the book. Other students’ perspectives also taught me parts of the book that I hadn’t considered until these classroom discussions.

Studies show that these discussions have very positive effects for many students who needed help understanding certain topics in their classes. A study taken by The Institute of Education Sciences presented evidence saying that classes that held classroom discussions often contained students that increased their influence into these discussions and increased their understanding of certain texts and text comprehension. Studies were taken on younger children and these results proved very effective to their learning abilities and improved their grades in their classes where the discussions took place.

Classroom discussions are very effective for teachers as well as students. An article written by Maryellen Weimer who is an advocate for positive and more effective teaching methods talked about a few positives that teachers gain from student led discussions in the classroom. The teacher doesn’t just have to feed lessons into the students and can instead give the students freedom to talk to each other and help each other understand certain topics and even debate their feelings and ideas. This can help the teacher know how to teach the students and what to teach them in the future. And these student led discussions can help improve interest in the class which every teacher strives for from their students. Overall, classroom discussions like the ones that were held over the past two weeks in our English class are very positive for students and teachers.