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LEADING A SEMINAR DISCUSSION

This section is intended to provide you with an understanding of the role you play as a seminar leader. It will provide you with information on how to use questions to offer the richest learning experience; it will also discuss some potential problems and how to deal with them. Specifically, this section discusses:

· attitude
· the role of questions

· trust
· problems

· preparation
· evaluation
· goals

ATTITUDE

One of the most important elements in running a successful seminar is the personal approach of the leader; the leader's attitude can affect the dynamics of the group and both the level and quality of participation. Looking to your own experience it is likely that the seminars which had the greatest impact on you are those where you became excited about the topic. That excitement translated into spirited discussion and intellectual vitality and left you wanting more.

On the other hand, nothing will impede students' excitement as effectively as a leader who is disinterested in the topic or the members of the group. The leader sets the tone, and if he or she demonstrates enthusiasm for the topic, the group will respond in kind. The leader must convey confidence that the students are capable of success and treat them with respect.

TRUST

A good leader must not only be open to the students' ideas but should encourage a diversity of new ideas. The seminar group is a forum where the students are given an opportunity to express their ideas or concerns about a topic. In many cases it is a new and somewhat uncomfortable experience for students and it is important that when a student musters the courage to express a thought it should not be dismissed by the leader. You will probably hear many ideas that will tempt you to outrage, but given consideration they may provide excellent fodder for discussion. The leader must be prepared to listen carefully and be sensitive to the feelings of the students. She or he must learn to adapt to questions asked or concerns expressed and provide positive feedback to encourage more responses. If you treat each idea expressed as worthy, the group will treat each idea as worthy. A seminar is not a place for a leader whose ego gets in the way by attempting to demonstrate a vast knowledge of a subject. Your contribution needs to be focused on listening to the students' input and attending to the roles you play in encouraging and directing that input.

To make a seminar work you must create an atmosphere of trust between you and the students and among the students themselves. One way to create a 'safe' environment for students to express themselves is to help them get to know each other. This will happen slowly over the course in any case but you can accelerate this process and improve early seminars. Ice-breaking activities described in the section on the first class will help. Encouraging the students to get to know and use each others names also helps. One way to do this is to have students use name tags, or cards on their desks, until everyone knows the other names.

Honesty is very important. Relax and be yourself. Dare to have fun! If you can create a relaxed atmosphere the students will be much more willing to participate. Do not try and pretend to know more than you do. If you get caught you will lose your credibility and the respect of the students. Admitting you do not know something provides you with an opportunity to be a model for solving problems through discussion.

PREPARATION

A good discussion needs planningdon't try to 'wing it.' Preparation for the seminar is often taken too lightly, especially when the leader feels that material is very familiar.

Begin by reviewing the material to be discussed. Be prepared to answer questions about the material. Whatever your own expertise may be, you can be sure that you will have to deal with unexpected questions on the material.

When working with the material, you must consider what points are useful to the class. What information is needed for the course? What perspectives are useful to increase the students' awareness of the material? What is the goal of the session? Is it merely to become aware of the issues around a topic, or is it necessary to come to some conclusion?

Inform your students in advance of the focus of the session. If all of the students are reading the material with a common idea of the goal it will be reflected in the effectiveness of the discussion. It can be a frustrating experience for a student who has read the material and is ready to discuss it; but finds the discussion focusing on aspects of the material to which they paid no attention.

One last suggestion on preparation - bring notes for yourself to the seminar. You need to remind yourself of the points and questions you wanted to discuss to better keep the discussion on track.

GOALS

Keeping the goals of the group in mind is essential to maintaining the direction and content of the discussion. Seminar groups are typically organized to either review the material covered in the lectures or to extend or enhance the lecture material.

If the intent of the group is a review, the role of the leader will be much closer to that of the lecturer. Typically you will have to cover in one session the material the lecturer covers in two or three. As a result, the goal is to bring in the highlights and stress the significant points. In the same session you will probably want to leave room for questions about the material and ask students about the progress of their own work. Needless to say, the time allowed to cover this material is not enough, and demands some constraints on the range of comment. When working in a review seminar you will need to provide more structure to accomplish the task. The most important point with which to begin is to communicate the goals of the session to the students.

More commonly the seminar group is intended to enhance the lecture material. The seminar is an active learning environment where the students are given the opportunity to discuss the ideas introduced in the lectures or material which complements the lectures. One of the most important goals of this environment is to increase the awareness of student. The student should become more aware of the problems to be found in the material or problems he or she has with it. He or she becomes aware of the points of view held by others, and learns the need to substantiate a point of view and how to do so. In this environment the student learns to think critically. Once again (as is often repeated here), it is important to communicate these goals to the students.

STRUCTURE

The structure of the seminar can vary according to the needs of the group. In the case of a session that covers a lot of material, or the members of the group need to develop the necessary skills, it would probably be an advantage to provide a structure which is visible and tight. On the other hand, operating a seminar with a loose and less visible structure encourages the group to select the important ideas and develop more complex thoughts. It should be noted that even the most visible structure should leave room for discussion and feedback.

Once again the information about students gathered in the first meeting can be made useful in deciding the appropriate structure. The structure should meet the needs and interests of both the students and the goals of the seminar. You may want to offer some structure options to the group and let them choose the most comfortable format. Keep in mind that the needs of the group may change as the course progresses and the skills and confidence of the students increase.

In the seminar presentation, students are offered one of a choice of topics on which to present a paper. The sessions can then be structured around the preparation of the presentations, the presentation and discussion of the material presented. Try to provide a good selection of topics so the students can work on something which interests them. You may even suggest they come up with their own topics which meet your approval.

Another technique, more common in large seminar groups, is to break the class into smaller discussions groups. In this case the groups will need clearly stated goals and specific questions to consider.

The least visible and most powerful structure is direction through questions. It requires the most skill, but is probably the most rewarding learning experience of all when it is successful.

ARRANGEMENT OF FURNITURE

An important and often forgotten aspect of successful seminars is the arrangement of furniture in the classroom.

Recommended arrangements:

· The circle has the advantage of everyone seeing and communicating easily with each other, and no-one has special status.

· Allow the possibility of breaking up into smaller groups. If the seminar starts with students gathered around a table, students can move their chairs away from the table and into groups. They can then move back to the table for collection and summary of ideas. Give small groups a physical identity by having them sit together.

· If you need to position yourself in front of the board or flipchart, leave a space so that other members of the group can also use it.

Arrangements not recommended:

· The TA has a special desk, higher chair, or anything that gives added status and dominance.

· Students sitting in rows facing the TA so they cannot see each other's faces. The responsibility for the session passes to the TA.

· Great distances between the participants it's difficult to communicate and easier to avoid contributing.

· The TA sits at one end of a long, rectangular table attention which focuses attention on that end; often the other end of the table start their own discussion.

· If the TA stands or sits in front of the board that is used for gathering information, they can become the 'guardian of the knowledge' and focus of attention.

THE ROLE OF QUESTIONS

Questions can be seen as tool in the hands of the leader. Questions can be used to generate discussion, breathe new life into a discussion, or increase the intensity by focusing in on specific issues. Questions can be used to encourage students who are less aggressive in responding and thus spread the level of participation amongst the group. Indeed, as will be seen in the next section, questions are the most important tool of problem-solving in a seminar. Used by a skilled leader, they can exploit the full potential of the learning experience and make the seminar a treat for students and leader alike.

Some tactics for questioning :

· After asking a question, wait for a response.

· Ask only one question at a time.

· When student questions are desired, request them explicitly,
wait, and then acknowledge student contributions.

· Use a variety of probing and explaining questions:

- factual questions (specific information, who, when, where, what?)

- divergent questions (no right or wrong answers necessarily)

- probing questions (build on student's response)

- higher order questions (more analysis from the student).

· Avoid the "Yes, but..." reaction.

If you really want to hear "any questions", allow for time and create an atmosphere which makes it OK for people to ask. Here are some openers that can yield responses:

"Before I go on, does this make sense to you?"

"How are we doing?"

"Where did I lose you?"

"Do my examples make sense to you?"

"What additional information do you want from me?"

The Learning and Teaching Centre has several handouts and books on questioning techniques.

There are a couple of points to keep in mind when using questions as a tool. First, keep the skill and intellectual level of the group in mind when asking questions. There is a fine balance between setting a standard so low it will bore the students and so high that they will not be able to contribute. The quality of the questions determine the level of discussion and you should try to raise that standard as far as you can comfortably to challenge the students' intellect. It is helpful to vary the types of questions to match the variety of personalities within the group. You may want to deal with shy students by asking them basic factual questions until they become more comfortable participating in the discussion.

The second point is to wait for the answers. Periods of silence can be the most difficult aspect of seminars for some leaders. Some leaders and students alike become very uncomfortable with them, but the students need the time to think before they answer and you should allow them to do so. Waiting also provides time for some of the more reticent students to get up the courage to contribute.

Just as each group you face will be unique in personality, the way in which you interact with them will be unique.

To start a seminar session:

· You may want to begin by asking a provocative question. Perhaps a suggestion with which no-one can agree. If you write it on the blackboard or an overhead transparency before class students will have time to think about it before you begin.

· It is always better to begin a session with a divergent question, something that is open-ended which will generate a variety of responses. You can pick the responses which are most likely to carry you in the direction you wish to go.

· You may want to begin with a question which is based on a common experience of the group. Such a question should not have an incorrect answer but is open-ended enough to provide material for discussion.

· You can begin a session by "brainstorming", ie: ask the students for ideas to be discussed. For example, you may go around the room asking the students what impressed them most about the reading material and direct the discussion towards the most inviting responses.

· You may want divide the group into subgroups and organize a debate over issues of concern to the class.

As the session progresses, narrow the general questions to more specific ones. Encourage all answers and remain open-minded, but try to keep the discussion within the context of your goals for the session. You do not want the students to look to your authority to speak, so keep out of the discussion as much as possible; invite and allow the students to interact with each other. Just as you want to interfere as little as possible, you do not want a few students to dominate or side-track the discussion. Once the discussion has begun, it is your role to try and get as many to participate as possible and to keep the discussion on track.

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