Inclusive Discussions

Discussions are a common pedagogical practice used to actively engage students, provide them the opportunity to hear viewpoints and ideas that may differ from their own, and challenge them to revise and reconsider their response to course materials and topics. An inclusive discussion is one in which all students feel confident and motivated to contribute their knowledge, ideas, and questions. Instructors can adjust the classroom environment to help increase student confidence and motivation in addition to mitigating uneven student preparation. When intentionally included and valued in discussions, differences in student backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints have the potential to enrich student learning. Below are some strategies to consider for supporting inclusive class discussions.

Ensure Equitable and Inclusive Participation

Inclusive participation in discussions requires intentional practices on the part of the instructor to ensure all students feel they can participate and be heard, that a few students don’t dominate discussion, and that multiple and varied viewpoints can be expressed. The sociologist Jay Howard has documented a phenomenon he calls the “consolidation of responsibility,” where a few students take responsibility for class discussion and the rest of the students feel they can’t or won’t be expected to contribute to discussion. To avoid this phenomenon and ensure inclusive participation, consider the following strategies:

• Wait a few seconds for more hands to raise after asking questions, rather than calling on the first person with their hand up or answering your question yourself. Some students need more time to gather their thoughts or to translate ideas from one language to another (Brookfield, 2006).
• Use structured discussions and “conversational moves” as a means of encouraging more students to participate. Conversational moves are rhetorical actions that students can make during class discussions, such as agreeing or disagreeing with a classmate in a way that indicates they understood what was said, asking a follow-up question, or linking multiple students’ contributions (Brookfield & Preskill, 2005). Have students engage in a think-pair-share activity, in which they can think of their answers on their own for a minute, discuss them with one person, and (in pairs) share their joint responses with the whole class.
• Directly address students who monopolize discussion. If the same students respond to your questions, say, “Let’s hear from someone else.”  If a student speaks for an inordinate amount of class time, take that person aside and ask them to “step back” to allow other students to contribute their thoughts and “step forward” (Howard, 2015).  
• Model and teach students how to have productive discussions with each other. In addition to demonstrating how to build on someone's comment, show them how to complicate or refute an idea. Teach students to listen to one other and to avoid restating a contribution made previously (Brookfield, 2006).
• Treat students as individuals; do not expect them to respond as representatives for any social group. It is unreasonable to expect any student to represent an entire population (Lovett, et al, 2023).
• Communicate to students that participation is a skill and not a personality trait. We all must learn how to be good participants in class discussions and develop the skill of meaningful participation (Gooblar, 2013). Explain to your students how you will provide them with opportunity (perhaps using some of the strategies outlined in this resource) to practice and develop their participation skills over the term. You can connect this to how you will assess their participation (see more below).
• Be flexible about participation and provide multiple means of engagement. There may be several reasons why students are not prepared cognitively, emotionally, or socially to effectively participate in discussion on a given day. Providing students with the opportunity to have a few low-participation days as well as other means of engagement such as writing an entry or exit ticket, will ensure that they are well prepared to contribute to discussion on the days they feel prepared to do so.

Preparing for and Facilitating Inclusive Discussion During Tumultuous Times

Events of crisis, tragedy, or social unrest can have a significant impact on teaching and learning. Such events impact students emotionally and cognitively and affect their ability to show up to class ready to learn. We may choose to teach through these moments, recognizing the potential impact they have on students and providing them with reasonable support, but not deliberately addressing them in the class. Or we may choose to teach with these events and engage with them in class or when spontaneous and unplanned discussions of current events arise. The following are some strategies to consider when teaching with difficult topics and current events.

• Building trust in the classroom is important for learning because a lack of trust can be one of the main barriers for students’ engagement in discussions. Discussions by their nature ask students to be vulnerable and to trust the instructor, their peers, and themselves. Class discussions that build on trust allow students to take intellectual risks, such as expressing viewpoints that are newly formed, controversial, and are open to reconsideration. Peter Felton and colleagues (2023) remind us in the paper Building Trust in the Classroom: A Conceptual Model for Teachers, Scholars, and Academic Developers in Higher Education, that “[t]he quality of student-teacher classroom interactions is important to learning, belonging, and success, particularly for students from groups that have been historically excluded from or marginalized in higher education.” In their research, Felton and colleagues identified four categories of “trust moves” that instructors can use to build trust in the classroom—cognition-based, affect-based, identity-based, and values-based. A model is presented below: [photo]. Reflecting on this model, we can ask ourselves: What are the current “trust moves” that we use in class discussions and what areas we might want to develop to build greater trust in the classroom? It important to remember that trust can and should be built not only among teacher and students, but also among students themselves.  
• Establishing classroom norms for discussion and engagement sets the tone for discussion, provides clear guidelines on how to act, and enables students and the instructor to feel comfortable expressing their ideas or points of view (Thomas, 2019). In addition, if there are moments of conflict or incivility, the instructor and students can refer back to the classroom norms to keep the discussion on track and productive. It is advisable to establish classroom norms with students on the first or second day of class and to make sure that all students can contribute. Classrooms norms generally address the following: how to communicate and listen; steps for dealing with conflict; the process for giving and receiving feedback; and consequences for violating the classroom norms. One prompt for the discussion of classroom norms can be: “Since discussion is an important part of this course: what in your experience have been the features of good classroom discussions?”
• Be prepared to navigate “hot moments” during class discussion. Hot moments arise when tension or conflict unexpectedly emerge during a discussion. It is important to consider ahead of time how you might address these moments, where they are likely to come up during the term, and how to make them productive for learning. Alexandra Sedlovskaya in her piece Leading Uncomfortable Class Discussions (2020), says that is important to “[r]emember that students might be forming and articulating their opinions for the first time, and how they phrase their thoughts might be different from how they mean to express their position. I tell students that the beauty of our classroom is that we have an opportunity to try multiple takes (“let’s have another take at it”) and learn in the process.”

Inclusive Assessment of Participation in Discussion

• Define and communicate what your goals are for class discussion. Your goals, whether for a particular discussion or all class discussions, should be consistent with your course objectives and clearly communicated to students. Communicating with students about the goals for discussion enables them to contribute in meaningful ways and assess their own learning during and after the discussion takes place.
• Communicate to your students what a “good discussion” looks like. For many students it may not be clear how to productively contribute to class discussion (Brookfield, 2006). If they have experienced a “consolidation of responsibility” in other courses, they may mistakenly view discussion as simply talking (Howard, 2015). Explain to students what you expect from class discussion, how they should prepare, and how you will assess their participation and the discussion as a whole. Be sure to consider multiple ways that students can contribute to the conversation to increase the inclusion of all students.
• Explain how you will grade participation with a transparent grading policy. There are many possible ways to assess participation, but no matter how you choose to assess student participation you should connect it to your goals for discussion and explain to students how their participation will be evaluated. A clear grading policy reduces bias in assessment and increases the likelihood that students will see their participation grade as fair and equitable (Zakrajsek, 2017). An assessment metric for good discussion can look like the following and can be graded based on points, a letter grade, or a +/check mark/- system: 

Contributing to a greater understanding from the assigned materials

Asking good questions of one's peers and/or instructor

Practicing active listening

Participating in smaller group activities

Contributing outside knowledge and experience to class

• Consider reconceptualizing participation as a skill to develop and grade it as such. When participation in discussion is seen as an area for growth and development, rather than a characteristic of individuals, greater equity and inclusion can be achieved in class discussions. Alanna Gillis (2019) has demonstrated in her research that reconceptualizing the purpose of assessing participation as skill development, helps all students identify their strengths and areas for growth and provides them the opportunity for reflection on the development of their participation skills over the term. In her paper, Reconceptualizing Participation Grading as Skill Building, she provides a participation assessment system that “reduces inequalities as it is based on student growth rather than comparisons to other students."