When facilitating any class based on online instructions, it is imperative that the instructor act as a guide. I have provided these two checklists to highlight both the good attributes, as well as the attributes to stay away from when moderating an online discussion.
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INQUIRY-ORIENTED DISCUSSION CHECKLIST |
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Good attributes to look for |
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| Use big driving questions with clear purpose | |
| Focus on questions with open ended answers to be pursued by teacher and students | |
| Invite exploration and encourage students to not be afraid to be wrong | |
| Trust that the students can handle complexity | |
| Support discovery of definable patterns | |
| Involve real world applications (bring today’s culture into the classroom) | |
| Model how to take others ideas and challenge them OR build on them | |
| Be a facilitator and a guide | |
| Lead them to the strongest theories they propose | |
| Provide input at the point of need to clear up misconceptions and promote the need for them to ask for clarifications, reasoning, and evidence | |
| Progress of their strongest theories must be mapped or organized in a way that summarizes what they know and then directs them where to go | |
| Provide time to wrestle with the difficult ideas | |
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INQUIRY-ORIENTED DISCUSSION CHECKLIST |
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Attributes to avoid |
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| Dominating the discussion | |
| Ignoring many student responses as irrelevant can shut them down | |
| Discussions shouldn’t always have predetermined responses | |
| Offering few opportunities to participate | |
| Encouraging only short answers from students | |
| Masquerading a lecture as a conversation | |
| Requiring students to guess what the teacher already knows | |
| Avoid recitation and monologic format | |
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