Reflection on Academic Classroom Discussions.
A lot of students are under the impression that school is a place where they must impress their teachers by achieving excellent test scores and respond to their questions with all the right answers. Why? Maybe it’s because of how the school system is modeled within TV shows that they watch, or simply because it’s implied from the learning methods they’re use to within their own classroom. One of the ways in which teachers may mislead their students is by the overuse of the traditional IRF format of school talk. An IRF ambience should only be maintained by teachers to a certain extent because it can become counterproductive in the end. This could possibly be the reason why students may possess the misconception mentioned earlier. By leading discussions where teachers are in control of what questions are asked and giving feedback to their students’ responses, students will be extremely cautious of what they say since they are now under the impression they need approval from their know-it-all teachers (111). Students may refrain themselves from participating unless they were one hundred percent sure their responses are correct.
Zwiers also explains what display questions are, and how they are a way for teachers to help students connect to pass knowledge or to recall on information that they have recently learned (104). However if it is overemphasized in the classroom it may lead students into thinking that to pass a course they only need to demonstrate their surface knowledge since higher order thinking was not encouraged by their teachers.
Through the incorporation of open ended questions, teachers may allow their students’ ideas and thoughts to build on one another. Effective class discussions are most easily facilitated when teachers are able to create classrooms environments which are warm, supportive, and one “in which pleasing the teacher is not the focus” (111). By creating this kind of classroom environment, shy, unconfident, and even ELL students will be more likely to participate. As teachers, we need to demonstrate to students that we are there to help them, and the only way in which we may most effectively do so is by understanding what troubles them. Unfortunately this does require students to make mistakes in order to learn from them, a process in which students aren’t always comfortable in going through. Only by discovering their students’ mistakes will teachers be most helpful in broadening their knowledge. Teachers need to convince students that they are on their side, and that teachers are not there to judge students based their mistakes but to use it as a way to help them instead. The only place where students will feel safe in making mistakes is in classroom they feel most comfortable in.