Implement student-led weekly discussion groups in which rotating leaders choose topics, facilitate discussion, and post summaries, unmediated by teaching staff¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

In the redesigned unit, discussion groups of about 10 students met weekly; each week a nominated leader "explored relevant literature, posed questions for the group to explore, and provided their own initial response", then facilitated across the week and posted a summary and conclusion. Groups were not mediated by teaching staff; students managed their own processes. Leaders were assessed at week's end and each student assessed three times across 10 weeks, with formative feedback after each assessment.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A defined topic list, assessment weighting (50% of the unit), and formative feedback processes to scaffold the student-led structure

Constraints¶

• The article does not claim this recipe transfers beyond its small, final-year cohort

Target Learners¶

• final-year undergraduate Education students studying fully-online

Target Learning Goals¶

• discussion facilitation, engagement with literature and peers' perspectives, and responsibility for group processes

Affordances¶

• Engagement Framework Five Dimensions

Related Strategies¶

• Reciprocal Teaching
• Literature Circles
• Book Clubs
• Empowering Students as Leaders

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Pittaway, S. M., & Moss, T. (2014). “Initially, We Were Just Names on a Computer Screen”: Designing Engagement in Online Teacher Education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(7). http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss7/8. doi:10.14221/ajte.2014v39n7.10