I have many different thoughts after reading chapters 1 and
2 from Discussion as a Way of Teaching
by Stephen Brookfield. Throughout the reading I kept asking myself how a
teacher could direct a conversation in such a classroom as presented in the
text. This may not seem like the right question to ask because the text itself
states on page 19 that “‘guided discussion’ – if that phrase is taken to mean
that students will be guided during the discussion to learn certain content –
is an oxymoron.” This statement may be true, if the text’s definition of “discussion”
is maintained. However, if the teacher is trying to teach something very
specific, I can understand how frustrating such an idea may seem. Later, I went
back and reread the text to see if I could find an answer to why this statement
feels wrong to me, and I found a piece which I believe may solve it. The issue
is not with the method that the text describes, but rather due to a jab at what
I would consider another teaching tool, which is what “guided discussion” is.
On page
19, right above the very sentence that I questioned, the text claims that
discussion is not suited to teaching facts and truths that have already been
defined. The text apparently disagrees with the idea of “guided discussion”
because it is guided only toward a specific idea. As an example of this, the
Earth orbits the Sun, and no amount of discussion is going to change this.
However, I believe there are situations where a student may have a different
way of looking at a fact, or a fact may bring up another related idea. These
ideas, no matter how trivial in appearance, I think can help other people to
look at the universe in multiple ways. Just because something is treated as
fact does not mean it is absolute and thus not up for discussion. A fact is
something that has not been proved wrong, and if we are not giving students the
opportunity to understand how it has not been proved wrong, then we are doing
them a disservice. I believe that such opportunities can be given by
discussion, even though it may be guided toward teaching a specific fact.
