Techniques for Group Discussion Learning how to participate in group discussion could be one of the most important skills you

Techniques for Group Discussion                  
   Like writing, discussion is a learned activity. Learning how to participate in group discussion could be one of the most important skills you can acquire in college. It will be an asset in nearly every course and make youngsters prepared for a professional career. To be adept at any kind of serious group discussion you must develop a variety of skills-in speaking, listening, thinking, and reading. The following will help you improve your discussion techniques:
   1. Be willing to speak in public. Good discussion depends on the lively participation of all group members, not (as so often happens)on the participation of a vocal few. Many students, however, do not join discussions because they are afraid to speak extemporaneously in a group. This fear is quite common--so common, in fact, that according to a leading communication consultant, Michael T. Motley, psychological surveys "show that what Americans fear most--more than snakes, heights, disease, financial problems, or even death--is speaking before a group." To take an active role in your education you must learn to overcome "speech anxiety." Professor Motley offers the following advice to those who are terrified of speaking before a group: Stop thinking of public speaking as a performance and start thinking of it as communication. He believes that people choke up or feel butterflies in their stomachs when starting to speak because they worry more about how people will respond than about what they themselves have to
say. "Most audiences," he reminds us, "are more interested in hearing what we have to say than in evaluating our speech skills."
   2. Be willing to listen. No one can participate in group discussion who doesn’t listen attentively. Attentive listening, however, is not passive hearing, the sort of one-way receptivity we habitually experience when we tune in to our radios, cassette players, and television sets. A good listener knows it is important not only to attend closely to what someone is saying but to understand why he or she is saying it. Attentive listening also requires that we understand a statement’s connection to previous statements and its relation to the discussion as a whole.  Perhaps the most valuable result of attentive listening is that it leads to the one element that open and lively group discussion depends on: good questions. An expert on group dynamics claims that most ineffective discussions "are characterized by a large number of answers looking for questions." When the interesting questions start popping up, group discussion has truly begun.
   3. Be willing to examine all sides of a topic. Good discussion techniques require that we be patient with complexity. Difficult problems rarely have obvious solutions that can be conveniently summarized in popular slogans. Complex topics are multifaceted; they demand to be turned over in our minds so that we can see them from a variety of angles. Group discussion, because it provokes a number of divergent viewpoints, is an excellent way to broaden our perspectives and deepen our insight into complex ideas and issues.
   4. Be willing to suspend judgment.  Class discussion is best conducted in an open minded and tolerant spirit. To explore ideas and issues in a free and open manner, you will need to develop a receptivity to the opinions of others even when they contradict your own. Discussion, remember, is not debate. Its primary purpose is communication, not competition. The goal of group discussion should be to open up a topic so that everyone in the group can hear a wide range of attitudes and opinions. This does not mean that you shouldn’t form a strong opinion about an issue; rather, it encourages you to be aware of rival opinions. An opinion formed without awareness of other points of view--that has not been tested against contrary opinions--is not a strong opinion but merely a stubborn one.
   5. Be willing to prepare. Effective discussion is not merely impromptu conversation. It demands a certain degree of preparation. To participate in class discussion, you must consider assigned topics beforehand and read whatever material is required. You should develop the habit of reading with pen in hand, underlining, noting key points, asking questions of your material, jotting impressions and ideas down in a notebook. The notes you bring to class will be an invaluable aid in group discussion.
   To get the most out of your reading and discussion, take careful notes during class. You will want to jot down points that have given you new insights, information that has changed your opinions, positions you take exception to, questions you need to answer, ideas you want to consider more fully. You should think of class discussion as the first step toward your paper, where you can brainstorm ideas, form an approach, discover a purpose. When you sit down to write, you will not be starting from scratch. If you’ve taken careful notes, you have already begun to write.