NORA GORDON: I think the best discussions
we have in class come from student questions rather
than questions that I pose, especially in a discipline,
like economics, where I'm teaching a pretty formal model
and it can seem like there's a right answer
and a wrong answer, so more lecture than discussion.
But sometimes the student questions
that I'm not anticipating can lead us
to the best discussions.
JOSIAH OSGOOD: The most important thing
for a good class discussion is debate.
Students need to understand that if the issue is worth
talking about, if it's an issue that scholars
are engaging with, there's no simple answer to the question.
There is no one right answer.
Then, as much as possible, get students to take sides,
to critique all sides, to come up with their own answers
to these questions.
DEBRA SIVIGNY: Yeah, when I'm facilitating discussion,
I usually like to start with the macro question.
We like to work our way in.
So what is the world of this play,
working all the way down to what does Antonio
think in act four, scene two, or whatever.
So it's about honing down to smaller and smaller things.
And when someone who hasn't contributed anything,
I will ask them to contribute.
Or I will actually take them and sort of pit
them against someone who has very fiery opinions
about something.
Restate what the fiery opinions were, and then try
to get someone to argue with that person
from a counterargument.
And it's not about, exactly, what they think in the moment,
but what they might believe the counterargument
to be even, if they're not part of it in their own opinion
themselves.
So it just keeps the discussion flowing.
JOSIAH OSGOOD: Students often, in discussions,
especially at the start of the class,
come in thinking that you have some particular view that you
want to push, and that in asking questions,
you are just fishing for students to state
that view, of course, that you have hidden up your sleeve.
So what I particularly tried to do with discussions
is ask open-ended questions and give students
readings as much as possible that take different stands.
So if its primary sources, try to find
two radically different perspectives
on a historical event.
It's scholarly views, try to find two radically
different interpretations.