Discussion
From the previous points and from your own experience it does seem to be the case that a central idea of seminars is discussion. However, useful discussion - indeed any discussion - doesn't always happen. The students who talked about seminars in our focus groups identified this as a key feature of what distinguished a good seminar from a bad one. The following list of tips were originally constructed for tutors, but what the students identified is that all the members of a seminar are responsible for whether useful discussion takes place so they are given here for everyone.
· Divide the seminar into smaller groups for some of the time. Most people are happy to talk to two or three others. (Favourite technique from both students and tutors).
· Start with easy/open questions, to which anyone is able to respond intelligently.
· Don't ask, 'how was the reading?'
· Ask for applications and implications of points.
· Set up scenarios using concrete examples.
· Ask what consequences might follow from a particular interpretation.
· Find parallel examples on the subject under discussion.
· Use contention to encourage discussion - play the devil's advocate.
· Get others to express what they understand by a particular word or concept.
· Use the whiteboard to sketch ideas as they develop - to model an idea and to focus attention on particular areas. This makes the idea available for others to contribute.
· Be explicit about aims and purposes; say what you want to get out of the seminar.
· Value what others feel is important to them.
· Ask others to give examples and apply ideas in other contexts, e.g., this could be finding similarities and differences to current/historic material.
· The tutor should avoid always answering questions; instead try to get students to answer them.
· The students should direct questions to each other not just to the tutor.
· Avoid getting into one to one exchanges; try to open the discussion out by asking for other contributions.
· Get something positive out of a seemingly unpromising contribution.
· The tutor should try to take a back seat to allow students to discuss amongst themselves. She or he could take on the role of recording the discussion in the form of minutes or leave the room.
· Everyone be responsive to silent members and try to draw them in (sensitively).
· Ask what questions others will take away with them?
Holding a debateA very effective way of learning in seminars is to hold a debate with some students representing one view and some a contending view. Taking the view you hold as a starting point can be good especially if this means the group gets to hear lots of perspectives (Scardimalia and Bereiter, 1993), although this can get heated and you need to remember common courtesy as well as the more specialised philosophical ones like the "principle of charity" (Hursthouse, R. 2000:4-9). Alternatively you can just adopt positions for the duration of the seminar, this avoids the overheating problem, it can be more focused in terms of understanding key points in the literature. Also representing a view you do not necessarily agree with is a useful exercise to learn the skill of anticipating counter arguments, and is essential when it just so happens that your group doesn't have any, e.g., epiphenomenalists. A good way of structuring such a seminar is half the time in small groups getting clear what your position is and anticipating counter arguments and the second half each group presenting its position and responding to the other side. The tutor could just available to both subgroups for clarification and to chair the debate.
Developing a group response to a philosophical position
This is an often used strategy in seminars and it performs the function of getting everyone talking about the position, e.g., idealism, in order to come to an agreed position on it. Why this is more helpful than just responding as an individual with what you think about idealism is that to come to a shared response you will need to enter into discussion and defend your interpretation and response. In doing this you might see problems that you had not anticipated on your own and you or others will need to rethink your ideas. If a shared response does not come about that does not matter, it is ok to 'beg to differ' as long as you have taken a long hard look at all sides. In this sense the journey (the discussion) is more important than the destination (an agreed result) it is just that without the task of attempting to reach agreement we probably wouldn't embark on the journey.
If you very quickly reach a consensus and it seems there is no more to discuss it can be helpful for someone to question whether you do all agree or have just reached an "illusory consensus" (Christenson and Larson, 1993, Hitano and Inagaki, 1991). We are often socially primed to avoid conflict, but the emotional charge of a conflict of ideas can be a good way to learn (Natasi and Clements, 1992, Dillenbourg, 1999). Although of course we must all keep it polite and well reasoned.
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