The dreaded discussion: ten ways to start. Frederick, P.

Frederick, P.  (Sep. 2003).The dreaded discussion: ten ways to start.  Improving College and University Teaching.  29, 109-114.

An Annotation by Laurie Walsh

Frederick uses humor to illuminate the hesitancy, founded in fear, of teachers, in this case – college professors, to venture into discussion.  After addressing the specific fears, the author explores 10 ways to use discussion in the classroom.  His methods are specific and immediately relevant beginning with eight assumptions and principles that guide his teaching.  The most powerful is “because we have much to learn from each other, all must be encouraged to participate” (110).  His techniques include goals and value testing, concrete images, generating questions, finding illustrative quotations, breaking into smaller groups, generating truth statements, forced debate, role playing, and non-structured scene setting.  This is a fantastic article.