Facilitating Productive Academic Discussion

What is a productive academic discussion? How can I carry out a productive academic discussion in my classroom?

Overview

Productive academic discussions provide students with opportunities to clarify their thinking, deepen their reasoning, listen to and engage with one another’s reasoning, and consolidate their conceptual understanding of subject content. This course explores how teachers can facilitate such discussions in their classroom and overcome common challenges. You will learn through a blend of in-person and online asynchronous and synchronous learning sessions.

Learning Goals

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

understand how a productive academic discussion can support your students’ learning;
plan a productive academic discussion for a lesson that you are going to teach;
facilitate a productive academic discussion using talk moves to promote student engagement; and
reflect on your use of talk moves in order to improve your facilitation skills.

Course Structure

Target Participants

English-medium Subject Teachers and English Language Teachers interested in understanding how to use productive academic discussions to support their students’ learning

Registration

Please register on OPAL2.0 using this code from Fri, 22 Dec 2023: SLI-000019.
Closing date for registration: Mon, 15 Jan

For enquiries, please contact:

Dr Rachel Goh (Senior Specialist/EL) at rachel_goh@moe.gov.sg