Research has shown the most effective discussions are ones where students are actively working to transform the arguments they heard others making. The statements students make when doing this are referred to as transacts and do one of three things:
- Extend the logic of the argument
- Refute the assumptions in the argument
- Find a place of commonality between two conflicting positions
This differs from traditional discussions in which a person simply repeats back a speaker’s argument/position. To develop students understanding of fairness and justice, the best discussions are communicative discourse. Communicative discourse is when the best argument wins, rather than a person or group.
When we are engaged in communicative discourse..the goal is to arrive at the best, most compelling position regarding the issue. It is the shared recognition in the force of the reasoning and not the power or skill or the debater that is the winner. In communicative discourse, the outcome is mutual; the argument wins.” (Nucci, 2008)
Research has uncovered 9 tips that support communicative discourse.
- Think before you speak.
- Listen carefully to what others have to say.
- Do not interrupt.
- Make use of what others have said when it’s your turn to speak.
- Only say what you truly believe.
- Don’t stay silent; make sure to contribute to discussion.
- Let other people speak.
- Support good ideas even if they are different from your own.
- Search for the best solution, even if it is different from the way you thought at first1.
Activities
This type of discussion does not come automatically for students, because it is in contrast from how they are often taught to engage. Below are four primer activities to prepare students for this particular type of discussion.
Learning to Listen
Have students sit in group and say their favorite color at the same time. Explain how when everyone speaks at the same time we can’t actually hear anything therefore it is important to take turns speaking.
This activity is a modified telephone. In groups of 4-5, student 1 tells something to student 2. Student 2 must then paraphrase it for student 3. Student 1 has to evaluate if student 2 was correct in their paraphrase. Student 2 then tells something to student 3 and evaluate if students 3s paraphrase was correct and so on. This activity will support students paraphrasing skills.
Elaboration
The teacher provides a dilemma such as “Should a parent be able to tell a kid to clean up his or her room,” or “Should the voting age be lowered to 16?”
Students will then sit in small groups of 4-6 people. Student 1 will express a point of view, and student 2 will extend or elaborate the argument. Student 3 will then extend or elaborate the arguments from student 2, and so on.
Rebuttal
Similar to the elaboration game except the students provide a paraphrase and rebuttal to the argument.
Integrative Resolution (High School)
Similar to above activities but involves creating an integrative solution to a dilemma. For example, student 1 presents a position and student 2 paraphrases and refutes it. Then student 3 paraphrases both positions and presents an argument that resolves the differences between players. This process is repeated till everyone in the group offers a solution2.
2Nucci, 2008