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Memo to
the Faculty
Faculty Teaching Excellence Program

Number 82
Engaged Learning Through Student-Led and Student-Graded Discussions
Elspeth Dusinberre

Good discussions help students engage with their own learning, retain information, understand concepts
fully, and process ideas and evidence. So too does variety in the classroom. And so does student
accountability and responsibility. One way to incorporate all of these aspects of learning in a single
exercise is by introducing student-led discussions in a class — and having the students grade each other.
I have found this a powerfully effective tool in every class I’ve tried it, and have found different variations
are equally welcome to the students and valuable to their learning. This brief memo provides context and a
rubric.

VARIATION ONE: Student-led discussions including a whole class. This works in small classes taught only
to undergraduate or graduate students and larger ones with a mixed graduate/undergraduate constitution,
in which case I ask only the grad students to lead discussion. At the beginning of the semester, the
students are asked to look over the syllabus and pick a topic on which they would like to lead a half-hour
discussion. They must find one additional recently-written reading to assign the class a week before they
are to lead discussion, with questions to guide their classmates’ reading. Those questions are to be turned
in to me, and the students’ responses to the questions are to be turned in to the discussion leader to be
evaluated. The discussion leaders meet with me ahead of time to go over their plans for leading class. In
class, they are graded by their classmates using the rubric below; I also take notes on their presentation
manner and assign them a grade. Their final grade is an average of their classmates’ grades (1/2) and my
grade based on their questions on the readings and on their leading of discussion (1/2). In the process they
receive copious amounts of feedback from me and their colleagues. This is really helpful to them in
developing the skills they need to prosper as future academics.

VARIATION TWO: Student-led-discussions in small groups. The process is very similar, except that a class
is broken into groups of four to six people, and students pick from the same number of topics as there are
people in each group. If a class includes graduate students as well as undergraduates, they should be put
in their own separate group or they are likely to take over.

It matters for discussion leaders to evaluate the others’ contributions (e.g., giving them marks out of 5 on
their response to the questions on the readings), or people will not do the readings and discussion will
languish. But with that reciprocal evaluation of participation this turns out to be an exceptionally effective
tool for learning. I have found excellent results in student participation in class altogether, in the quality of
their research papers, and in the quality of their responses to essay questions on exams, as well as an
upswing in the numbers of students who come to my office hours with thoughtful questions.

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  ONE SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT (whole class discussion):

VARIATION

In this class, I will talk with you about leading class discussions and give you the opportunity to lead a
discussion in the course. I see this as an important part of mentoring graduate students -- after all, the jobs
we are most likely to get are teaching jobs! One of the things people often find most challenging is leading
a discussion, and I want you to have the chance to practice and talk about how it goes as part of this
class.

You are not responsible for teaching the subject matter of a particular day's class, but rather for leading a
30-minute discussion on that day's readings.

Leading Discussions
There are a lot of ways to lead a discussion well. We will talk about some of them. Here are some
guidelines, for starters:

Leading a discussion does not have to do with how much you know about the subject, but rather
with how well you can get others to think about the subject. In this way it is significantly different
from a presentation.

So...:
1) Do the readings yourself, ahead of time.
2) Think of the major points or problems you think are worth discussing.
3) Think of the major points or problems you think people ought to know, know about, or have thought
about by the end of the discussion.
4) Make a list of questions you think would be interesting to discuss (this is *not* the same as make a list
of questions to which you think you know the answers).
5) LISTEN to what people say. Listen actively. Listen to understand. Do not listen to react, to contradict,
to inform. You may ask follow-up questions if you wish.
6) When you ask a question, wait at least six seconds before talking again yourself.
7) Do not answer your own questions.
8) Think of small group questions that will help bring about your desired results.
9) Think of active learning projects that will help bring about your desired results.

And here are two articles to help you think about this task, provided by the Faculty Teaching Excellence
Program:
• The Art of Leading a Discussion
• The Dreaded Discussion

The Assignment:
I want each of you to lead one class discussion in November or December. You will not be responsible for
teaching the whole class that day, but you will be responsible for leading a discussion of 30 minutes. In
addition to doing the readings I have assigned, please write one or more focus question to help guide
your classmates' readings: these should be sent to me as an e-mail attachment at least a week and a
day ahead of your discussion so I can forward them to the class. Focus questions need not be the same
as the questions you use to foster discussion; like the discussion questions, they will form part of your
graded work. Be creative: hold a debate, break the class into small groups, get them to argue with an
interpretation, get them to move around, require them to use evidence.

Your classmates will be grading you, based on the rubric below. In addition to giving you your classmates'
comments, I will also provide you with feedback and comments. Your grade for the assignment will consist
of the average of the grades you receive from your classmates, averaged with the grade I assign you (half
and half).

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I will be glad to talk with you ahead of time about your approaches and thoughts!! I certainly want to hear
from you ahead of time about the major issues you wish to include, so that I will not scoop you. Please let
me know as soon as possible which your preferred topics and dates are: I will assign them on a first-come,
first-serve basis.

VARIATION TWO SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT (small group discussion):

Task: Identify a key theme from our readings. One week before leading your class discussion, select and
distribute one reading about this topic, dating to the year 2000 or later, that supplements the assigned
texts and promotes lively discussion. Include one or more focus questions on the readings for the week
(your reading and the ones assigned for class). Think of three or so discussion questions to consider in
class together. Conduct a 20-minute discussion with the class using the rubric for planning and
implementing the discussion.

Discussions will be in small groups, and you will be grading each other! Leading a discussion can be really
tricky; I recommend reading both of these articles provided by the Faculty Teaching Excellence Program,
well ahead of time to help you prepare:
• The Art of Leading a Discussion
• The Dreaded Discussion

Your grade will be based on your classmates' assigned grades, and on the questions you ask your
classmates. Please write down at least three questions to ask your classmates as part of your discussion -
- you will turn these in to me, along with your focus questions you assigned along with your readings. Your
discussion grade will thus be 20% based on your focus and discussion questions, with the remainder
calculated as the average of the grades assigned you by your peers. Here are some things to do ahead of
time:

1. Do the readings yourself, ahead of time.

2. Think of the major points or problems you think are worth discussing.
3. Think of the major points or problems you think people ought to know, know about, or have
thought about by the end of the discussion.
4. Make a list of questions you think would be interesting to discuss (this is *not* the same as make
a list of questions to which you think you know the answers).
5. LISTEN to what people say. Listen actively. Listen to understand. Do not listen to react, to
contradict, to inform. You may ask follow-up questions if you wish.
6. When you ask a question, wait at least six seconds before talking again yourself.
7. Do not answer your own questions.
8. Think of small group questions that will help bring about your desired results.
9. Think of active learning projects that will help bring about your desired results.

Here are the possible dates and topics...the discussion leader's name for each group is listed first and
bold-faced.

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Thursday, February 3: topic 1
Person 1 Person 1 Person 1 Person 1 Person 1
Person 2 Person 2 Person 2 Person 2 Person 2
Person 3 Person 3 Person 3 Person 3 Person 3
Person 4 Person 4 Person 4 Person 4 Person 4
Person 5 Person 5 Person 5 Person 5 Person 5

Thursday, February 10: topic 2

Person 2 Person 2 Person 2 Person 2 Person 2
Person 1 Person 1 Person 1 Person 1 Person 1
Person 3 Person 3 Person 3 Person 3 Person 3
Person 4 Person 4 Person 4 Person 4 Person 4
Person 5 Person 5 Person 5 Person 5 Person 5

Thursday, February 17: topic 3

Person 3 Person 3 Person 3 Person 3 Person 3
Person 1 Person 1 Person 1 Person 1 Person 1
Person 2 Person 2 Person 2 Person 2 Person 2
Person 4 Person 4 Person 4 Person 4 Person 4
Person 5 Person 5 Person 5 Person 5 Person 5

Thursday, February 24: topic 4

Person 4 Person 4 Person 4 Person 4 Person 4
Person 1 Person 1 Person 1 Person 1 Person 1
Person 2 Person 2 Person 2 Person 2 Person 2
Person 3 Person 3 Person 3 Person 3 Person 3
Person 5 Person 5 Person 5 Person 5 Person 5

Thursday, March 10: topic 5

Person 5 Person 5 Person 5 Person 5 Person 5
Person 1 Person 1 Person 1 Person 1 Person 1
Person 2 Person 2 Person 2 Person 2 Person 2
Person 3 Person 3 Person 3 Person 3 Person 3
Person 4 Person 4 Person 4 Person 4 Person 4

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DISCUSSION RUBRIC:

Points
Dimension Qualities of Exemplary Work Comments
(out of 6)

Focus questions handed out the week before the

Preparation discussion

Focus of readings explained and clear


Type of readings
Content

• Topics of general interest

• Topics relevant to the course

Teaching methods
• Engage students - motivating
• Variety of methods used
• Introduced clearly
Discussion/ • Balanced - small/large discussion
Debate Methods • All voices heard
Guide but not dominate discussion
Summarize the discussion
Discussion with different viewpoints promoted, not a
presentation

Questions asked
• Challenging, thought-provoking
Discussion • Understandable
Questions • Refer to readings
• Encourage participation
• Encourage students to refer to readings

Facilitators demonstrate good facilitation skills...:


• Eye contact

Facilitation • Active listening

Skills • Paraphrasing

• Summarizing

• Redirecting the questions

Eye contact
Voice (pitch, volume, speed, pausing)
Specific
Gestures
Communication
Stance
Skills
Movement
Visual or other aides

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Elspeth Dusinberre is Associate Professor in the Classics Department at the University of Colorado
Boulder

Faculty Teaching Excellence Program

Mary Ann Shea, Director
University of Colorado Boulder
360 UCB. Roser ATLAS 235
Boulder, CO 80309-0360
(303) 492 – 4985
http://www.colorado.edu/ftep
 

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