Discussion in Science Teaching

Equip yourself to run a discussion in class

Lesson idea. Science teachers are often encouraged to rush from one topic to another delivering science content and explanation without giving students the opportunity to consider why we believe things to be true. To step back and give students an opportunity to reflect on their ideas can be hard, but this is a part of teaching about the nature of science and about controversial issues.

Teaching approach. This resource is aimed at developing student teachers’ skills in working with discussion^(ta). It can be presented to them as a hand-out to accompany an activity or read as reference material. See it online at BEEP website. Although it uses a science context, the real focus of the resource is managing and organising discussion-based activities. It provides guidance on:

• Starting and structuring a discussion
• Organising group talk^(ta)
• Role Play/drama^(ta)
• Ground Rules for discussion and handling difficult discussions

Resource details
Title	Discussion in Science Teaching
Topic	[[Topics/Discussion|Discussion]]
Teaching approach	[[Teaching Approaches/Group talk|Group talk]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Drama|Drama]],  [[Teaching Approaches/Discussion|Discussion]]
Learning Objectives	to enable teachers to employ a range of pedagogical techniques for promoting and managing discussion and about some of the issues relevant to teaching in this way.
Subject	[[Resources/Biology|Biology]],  [[Resources/Science|Science]],  [[Resources/Cross-curricular|Cross-curricular]]
Age of students / grade	[[Resources/Secondary|Secondary]]
Related ORBIT Wiki Resources	DfES document Group_Talk_and_Argument
Files and resources to view and download	Six pages of teachers' notes File:TE0057 Teachers' Notes.doc