What research suggests about engaging productively in whole-class and small group discussions

At various points during the LifeLab activities you will be asked to have whole-group discussions or small groupwork discussions with your students. To organise effectively this process, we suggest you consider group composition in terms of attainment levels and social interaction skills.

Mixed attainment grouping can benefit students by allowing them to ask each other challenging questions, and to engage in peer support and explanation during the group activities. You should also consider the social interaction skills of your groups and try to create groups that are used across lessons and activities, to reinforce group cohesion, that can further support productive engagement with the tasks given.

There are various strategies you can use to organise small group work including:

• talk partners (pair work),
• listening triads (groups of 3 each with a specific role: speaker, questioner, recorder, taking turns to perform these roles within groupwork tasks),
• pairs to fours,
• jigsaw method,
• think-pair-share.

You can use these strategies to adapt some of the activities described in the unit, especially if you want students to work in smaller rather than large groups (e.g. in pairs rather than groups of 4-5).

Some points to consider when setting up and running groupwork activities:

1. establish ground rules for talking, sharing and behaving within the group (Figure 1) before you ask students to take part in any groupwork activities.
2. ensure that each student has a clear role for collaboration and behaviour within the group (e.g. in Lesson 2, Activities 1 and 4 you can assign roles such as the ‘resources handler/manager’, note-taker, spokesperson, group encourager’.
3. ensure that students are aware of a clear objective, timeframe and final outcome for each activity (especially if you are adapting it in any way from those in the student booklet).
   • we share our ideas and listen to each other.
   • we talk one at a time.
   • we respect each other’s opinions.
   • we give reasons to explain our ideas.
   • if we disagree, we ask ‘why?’ and ‘how do you know’?
   • we try to agree and if we don’t understand we ask ‘can you explain that to me?’
4. think in advance about what you will be doing while students are doing their group work – you could circulate around the groups and monitor discussions or use post-it notes to write down some of the points students raise, which you think are worth exploring further (or addressing) in whole class.
5. give groups question prompts that will:
   • keep them focused on task (i.e. the key question they are discussing)
   • support the discussion (e.g. description and analysis questions, using examples)
   • extend and challenge them (e.g. comparing with previous knowledge or lessons, considering alternative views and playing devil’s advocate).
6. consensus vs. persuasion: Having to reach consensus within small group discussion has been found to produce significantly better-quality discussions between students compared with having to persuade each other. When trying to reach consensus (i.e. agree on one solution oranswer), students used more evidence, and considered all alternatives before making a decision on which idea is better, or coming up with a solution of their own (Garcia-Mila et al., 2013). When students are asked to persuade others, they tend to use less evidence and repeat them significantly more rather than consider a wider range of evidence and ideas (Gilabert et al., 2013).

Activities throughout the LifeLab module, will require students to spend time reading and evaluating information provided as ‘sources of evidence’ (either in print or given as websites and other electronic sources) so as to construct explanations or develop their understanding of health/science concepts. Some of the issues that might arise with these activities, and the handling of multiple sources of evidence within lessons will relate to your students’ literacy skills, their ability to make correct and relevant links between the questions they are trying to answer, or the conclusions they are trying to draw, and the information given to them, as well as the organisation of the wide range of resources that are being used.

We recommend the following options to help you carry out these activities:

1. go through the evidence statements ahead of your lesson. Identify how they match to each group, and how they could be used to answer questions in the booklet or support student discussion.
   • can you identify evidence that could contradict some possible answers?
   • how can you use this counter-evidence to extend their thinking and reasoning?
2. organise each group’s evidence statements into envelopes. Have a routine in place for distributing, using and returning materials.
   • one student role in the group has responsibility for these resources.
   • have a corner or location in your class designated as a ‘resources bank’.
   • create an ‘evidence box’.
3. allow time for students to familiarise themselves with the evidence statements. Consider how to facilitate this process with students with lower literacy skills.
   • think about pairing students within groups.
   • think about how to assign group roles that can support this familiarisation process.
   • scanning text for keywords either identified by students, or given by you.
4. have prompt questions printed out for students to use with each other, and as a reminder of the task’s objective. Use them as additional scaffolds for discussion.

Teachers can face the difficult situation of dealing with sensitive issues raised by students; this is not unusual when discussing topics like health and illness. This can be tough for your as a teacher to deal with but will be even tougher for students. It is important for you to recognise that you are significant adults in your students’ lives. Students will often hear about current affairs at home, from peers or from the media. What is happening can be difficult for them to understand. This is made more difficult by the increase in ‘fake news’ on social media. Students need a safe space to have conversations that will reassure them.

Some strategies to support you in dealing with sensitive issues with students:

1. be prepared
   • identify potential topics in the LifeLab module that some students may find upsetting.
   • if you think students may be particularly affected by certain issues, let parents know the topics that will be covered in advance. This allows parents to chat about these things at home as well.
   • undertake training available from mental health charities such as BEAT.
2. creating a safe space with boundaries
   • be clear from the start that everyone has the right to an opinion, but hurtful or offensive comments will not be tolerated.
   • make it clear that everyone should be given a voice without judgement, but students need to think about how their words affect those around them.
   • you can also set up an anonymous question box to encourage students to submit questions they may feel embarrassed to ask in person.
   • allow students the opportunity to leave the room without explanation, or offer time to speak with you confidentially if they wish.
3. allow students to feel heard
   • one of the most important things to do is to create a balance of views whilst respecting and acknowledging different arguments.
   • use open questions, specifically ‘how’ and ‘what’ to invite students to share their views and to explore them. Where we encourage you to ask ‘why’ to justify their reasoning when having discussions about science concepts, you should try to avoid using questions that start with ‘why’ when students express their personal views. This can feel judgemental and make them feel put on the spot.
   • don’t immediately shut down a problematic comment, instead use ‘how’ and ‘what’ questions to ask them to provide a deeper explanation of their thinking. This encourages them to challenge what they think and explore whether they really believe what they have said.
4. help students think of the best ways to cope
   • use ‘how’ and ‘what’ questions to ask what someone in the class might do if they are affected by the topic. Encourage students to generate ideas for different ways of coping, sources of support and steps they could take to overcome challenging situations.
   • identify potential support to direct students to. For example, Young Minds and the eating disorder charity BEAT. Share what you know about these sources if students do not suggest them themselves.
   • tell students what support is available in school if needed.