Leading Dilemma Discussions

by Shelby Clark

Leading interesting discussions in the classroom can often seem like a fraught process. To begin, you might think you’ve discovered an engaging and interesting prompt only to find out that students find the subject terribly boring. Then, you change topics, only to find out that the material being discussed is now controversial, or even banned. Next, you want to allow students to bring their own topics to the discussion and end up with students in conflict with one another over issues of identity. Yet, as the world grows more politically polarized yet more globally connected, the need for civil discourse skills becomes only more evident

Here at The Good Project, we believe in the importance of discussing deliberately difficult dilemmas in order to develop the qualities needed to do good work– ethics, engagement, and excellence. When thinking about how to resolve a difficult dilemma, we often apply a framework referred to as the “5Ds,” which includes the following steps: 1) recognizing the dilemma in your life (define); 2) consulting with others regarding possible actions to take (discussing and debating); 3) personally reflecting on these options and whether or not to take action (deliberation); 4) making and potentially carrying out your decision (deciding); and, 5) finally, reflecting on the consequences of one’s decision and thinking about how one might handle similar decisions in the future (debriefing).

We realize that this process of engaging in such deliberate discussions requires that educators and students are ready to take on a high level of intellectual risk-taking in order to engage in what can end up being controversial or vulnerable conversations. Below, we review key processes and resources regarding civil discourse in the classroom in hopes of helping educators facilitate dilemma discussions more easily. 


Helping students feel that they are in a safe space where they can show their authentic selves to both their peers and their teachers is a step that should begin before starting dilemma discussions. Belonging for students can mean feeling a sense of connectedness, social support, or feeling valued and respected. Importantly, a large literature explores how students who have been marginalized are more likely to feel a sense of alienation in particular school contexts (for example, Black students in predominantly white college institutions). 


Teachers should be attuned to how students in their classrooms may or may not feel connected to school. Some tools include: 

You might consider having your students engage in identity mapping so that they can begin to learn more about how their peers understand themselves; such understanding can begin to help them jump over the “empathy wall.” 

Once you feel your students are comfortable enough to begin discussions in the classroom, it is important to set norms for civil discourse. 

Resources abound regarding how to set norms for civil discussion. Here are just a few for inspiration: 

One exercise that we have used in professional development and educational activities is to provide participants with a list of common norms for discussion. See the slide below: participants are asked to read over the norms and to take time in groups or as a whole to reflect. For example, are there norms that need to be adapted, dropped, or added?

Before diving in further, consider having your students complete a reflective self assessment such as the United States Courts’ Civility Self-Reflection Exercise. Where do they currently stand on these questions? Where might they stand at the end of a unit focused on debate or dilemma discussions? At the end of a semester or year? 

In order for students to take the intellectual risk of participating in a classroom discussion, students must know how to participate in such discussions. Depending on the issue at hand, discussions can call on a variety of students’ strengths and skills including critical thinking, evidentiary reasoning, argumentation, deliberation, reflection, metacognition, questioning, and more. Yet, students may have had little practice in using such strengths in the classroom. 

Provide Models

One way to help students learn the skills needed to engage in discussion is to provide them with specific models of good discussion and to have them reflect on those models. What are they seeing? What do students do in the discussion? What does the teacher do? What types of questions are asked? What statements are made? What is the body language of those in the discussion, and where is everyone standing or sitting? What is the tone of voice? Who gets to speak and when? 

Some models of discussion you might provide include: 

1. Harkness. Harkness is a pedagogy wherein students and teachers engage in an egalitarian manner in meaningful discussions around a table (versus a teacher at the front of a more typical classroom of desks).  These discussions work in support of  deep, critical thinking, reflection, and feelings of self-efficacy about learning. Phillips Exeter Academy, where Harkness was created, has numerous video examples of Harkness in action in the classroom that can be shown to students as a model. In addition, Harkness teaching tools, such as mapping comments at the Harkness table, can help students reflect on what they’re seeing. 

2. Socratic Discussions. A Socratic discussion is “a structured discussion in which students examine issues and respond to open-ended questions about a text. Students use dialogue rather than debate to communicate with each other.” However, in Socratic discussions, the teacher (or leader) often remains the main instigator of questioning, whereas in Harkness, students are meant to be the main initiators of questioning. There are numerous resources online to learn more about Socratic discussions (here, here, here), but you can also model these discussions with videos for your students as well. Consider having your students use some of AVID’s worksheets to help them reflect on the video model; for example, which of the AVID Socratic Seminar Questions did they observe being used in the video, if any? 

3. Better Arguments Project. The Better Arguments Project “is a national civic initiative created to help bridge divides – not by papering over those divides but by helping people have Better Arguments.” They have identified three dimensions and five principles of a better argument. The three dimensions include being aware of historical context, showing empathy and emotional intelligence, and recognizing power dynamics. The five principles include: 1) Take Winning off the Table; 2) Prioritize Relationships and Listen Passionately; 3) Pay Attention to Context; 4) Embrace Vulnerability; and 5) Make Room to Transform. Students can engage with some of the Better Argument Project’s “real stories” to learn more about having a better argument. The Good Project worked with the Better Arguments Project to create a workbook focused on how better arguments can help lead to good work. 

Importantly, a key element to all three of the above frameworks is the notion that discussion is not a debate–it is not about winning or losing but is instead about understanding one another’s perspectives and the truth about the subject being discussed. 

Provide Prompts & Explicitly Teach Skills

In addition to explicit models of discussion, prompts that guide students to conduct dialogue and discussion with particular skill sets, or explicitly teach these necessary skills, can be helpful. These skills include how to question, how to reflect, how to challenge, how to interject, how to comment, and so on. 

Some useful resources include: 

In today’s climate of increasing political and social division and tension, educators need to be prepared to deal with “hot button” topics in their classroom. Often, these exact topics are the ones students want to discuss, as they are the most relevant to their own identity development and lived experiences. 

A variety of resources exist to help educators be prepared when such issues arise: 

In addition, there are resources to help educators tackle specific controversial or difficult discussions: 

Of course one of the main goals of engaging in discussion is to talk about and learn the content in question, whether it’s a poem, a recent news event, Greek philosophy, or a math equation. However, as discussed above, it is also important for students to learn the skills and strengths needed to engage in any discussion.

To accomplish this type of learning students need to be able to engage in metacognitive reflection, meaning they are able to keep track of: 

  • What they have already known (prior knowledge)

  • What they don’t know (areas of improvement)

  • What they want to master (their goals)

  • What they will do to improve (action plan)

This process is encapsulated in what is termed the “metacognition cycle.” 

To help students with metacognitive reflection: 

Harkness METICs are an excellent example of a metacognitive reflection exercise. Although implemented differently by each Harkness teacher, METIC stands for “Mid-Term Effort to Improve Class,” and generally involves either formal or informal reflection exercises in which students are asked to think about what has been going well and not well at the Harkness table– often both individually and as a collective group– and what can be done to improve for the remainder of the semester. See examples here and here

Conclusion

This is by no means an exhaustive list of resources regarding how to engage in discussion, nor do these resources touch on the breadth of the discussion literature. Nonetheless, we hope that these resources provide you with some guidance as you help your students think about and discuss ethical dilemmas, values, the meaning of “good work,” and more.