How to create effective discussion questions
Effective questions are the key to generating discussions that cause thinking and learning. Unfortunately, there is no secret formula to designing discussion activities that will generate discussion and critical thinking every time. Much depends on the course content, your teaching style, and the students in that class. Each group of students will present a unique chemistry and personality, thus you may find that what worked one semester may not work the following semester. You may find the need to modify your discussion prompts after "meeting and getting to know" your students.
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One rule-of-thumb is to use clear, open-ended questions, in order to motivate students to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate. Following is a list of possible strategies to generate discussion and motivate your students to participate:
- Pose questions that challenge assumptions, or require students to interpret information.
- Pose questions that require students to compare information with that from previous content.
- Pose questions that require students to apply information to real-life scenarios or current, real-world events.
- Ask students to discuss the effect of changing key facts or issues presented.
- Ask students to brainstorm possible causes or solutions to problems.
- Make it interesting - even controversial - and allow for multiple perspectives that students bring from their own experience.
- Make sure the question is connected to the course content.
- Make discussions revolve around ethics. "What would you do...and why?"
- Set up smaller groups for richer discussions.
The following resource is from "Generating and Facilitating Engaging and Effective Online Discussions" (n.d.), Teaching Effectiveness Program, Teaching and Learning Center, University of Oregon.
Another excellent resource is found at the Penn State Learning Design Community website: http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign/crafting_question/quest_types