| Sarah
and Garrett are eighth-graders in Lori Mable’s
class at Thunder Ridge Middle School in the Cherry Creek
School District. Their thoughts on participating in
classroom discussions of controversial issues reflect
the positive effects that such discussions can and do
have on young people.
Discussion of current local, national, and international
issues—especially those having relevance for today’s
students—is one of the research-based promising
approaches recommended in the highly regarded The
Civic Mission of Schools Report (Carnegie
Corporation and Center for Information and Research
on Civic Learning and Engagement, 2003). That recommendation
is based, in part, on the recent International
Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement
study 90,000 students in 28 countries.
That study found that discussion of controversial issues
in an open classroom climate is a significant predictor
of:
•
Civic knowledge
• Support for democratic values
• Participation in political discussions
• Political engagement |
In
conversations with opinion makers and educators in Colorado
throughout 2003 and 2004, Center
for Education in Law and Democracy staff
found widespread support for improving discussion of
controversial issues in our state’s classrooms.
Coloradans want young people to be engaged in deliberation
on important issues because the ability to take part
in civil discussions of controversial matters is essential
to citizenship in democracy. Coloradans also recognize
the need to provide teachers with high quality professional
development and materials that will assist them in their
efforts.
How Can This Web Module
Help?
This web module is a first effort
to address the need for materials and professional development
electronically. The Discussing Controversial Issues
module provides a variety of tools that can be used
by individual teachers or by educators planning professional
development focused on discussing controversial issues.
One of the questions addressed through the research
of Dr. Diana Hess, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
is: What do teachers skilled in engaging students in
discussing controversial issues do? The tools in this
module are organized according to the answers to this
question identified by Hess’s research:
•
Teachers who use discussion effectively establish
democratic
norms in the classroom and involve
students in creating a classroom climate conducive
to discussion.
• Teachers who use discussion effectively
teach students what
discussion is and what it isn't.
• Teachers who use discussion effectively
choose
appropriate "live" issues.
• Teachers who use discussion effectively
select
discussion models and then teach
students how to participate in discussion.
• Teachers who use discussion effectively
prepare
and have students prepare. Preparation
means helping students develop a knowledge base
on which they can draw in the discussion. It also
means selecting materials that provide balance,
exposing students to multiple perspectives on
the issue.
• Teachers who use discussion effectively
hold high expectations for all students to take
part in the intellectual work of discussion. Engaging
all students is a major challenge. In this section
of the module, we look at ways to engage
reticent students in discussion.
• Teachers who use discussion effectively
provide meaningful feedback on discussion skills.
To provide such feedback, teachers need to think
carefully about how to assess
discussion.
• Teachers who use discussion effectively
work on their own practice—taking risks,
studying discussion, seeking feedback from students
and/or colleagues who observe the teacher’s
facilitation of discussion. To support teachers
in developing their own reflection skills and
to provide a glimpse of skilled teachers’
thinking, we provide teacher
reflections in this section.
|
To
provide practical support for teachers, we also provide
a data base of links to sites providing diverse views
on selected issues of concern to Coloradans. The data
base also includes links to discussion-based lesson
plans. We invite teachers to submit
your own lessons for possible inclusion
on the page.
This module was developed by Laurel Singleton, CELD
Associate, with the support of the Center
for Civic Education. We
welcome your feedback; send comments to: CELD.
|
