Course Overview

This course will teach you about designing and facilitating quality academic discussions in the classroom. A variety of grouping and discussion strategies will be shared, along with specific steps to implement each component of academic discussion. You will evaluate how to design strong prompts and provide support to students to assist in rigorous discussion. You will also analyze exemplar discussions in a variety of classroom contexts to consider how to engage your students in valuable academic discussion.

You will leave the course with a plan of action ready for academic discussion in an upcoming lesson, a resource ready for student use, and a full implementation plan outlining your goals for utilizing student discussion throughout your classroom.

Learn More & Register

At a Glance

Approximately 45 hours
Access Time: 365 days
3 PDUs
Graduate Level Professional Development Credit
$380
No additional materials required

Program Highlights

Online education

100% Online

All coursework delivered fully online, so you can balance work, life, and study.

Standards

Graduate-Level PD Credits

Earn graduate-level professional development credits to support salary advancement and professional growth. Check with your school or district for approval before enrolling.

Marketing

Fast, Flexible, and Ready When You Are

Enjoy instant access, self-paced study, and an easy-to-follow, template-based course format.

Course Objectives

  • Define academic discussion and understand how it applies in a variety of classroom contexts
  • Plan for guiding questions to ensure full student participation in the discussion
  • Evaluate discussion models and methods for student interaction
  • Analyze the main components of effective discussion, including the specific purpose, student preparation, and opportunities for reflection
  • Compare various classroom settings that incorporate student discussion and identify the key components that make them effective
  • Plan for implementation by completing an action plan that details a grouping strategy, purpose, and plan for implementing academic discussions
  • Critique, analyze, and summarize specific articles, resources, and studies about collaborative learning, student engagement, and academic discourse
  • Build and describe the use of a resource that supports a strategy you plan to use in your upcoming lesson
  • Plan and build a Classroom Implementation Plan for immediate classroom use by planning for the concepts you learned in this course

Course Topics

  • What is academic discussion?
  • Planning for academic discussion
  • The purpose of academic discussion
  • Common discussion models
  • Crafting the right questions for discussion
  • Preparing your students for discussion
  • Planning the resources for students to access to facilitate discussion
  • Supporting and engaging students during discussion
  • Planning the student opportunities for reflection after discussion
  • Evaluating an exemplar discussion

Course Syllabus


View Course Syllabus

View All Professional Development for Educator Courses

Program Partner

This course is offered through University of Massachusetts Global’s School of Extended Education in partnership with Model Teaching.

What are Graduate-level Professional Development Credits?

Graduate-level professional development credits are not part of a degree program but instead are primarily used for professional advancement such as salary increment steps and recertification. Students should seek approval from appropriate district officials before enrolling in these courses.

Related Programs

All Programs
1 PDU
Teaching & Education

Inquiry Based Learning, Course

Learn to how to plan, develop, and execute inquiry-based lesson planning.
$210
Learn More

Featured Articles

All Articles