Topical group discussion plays vital role in understanding a topic or issue. Discussing a topic with friends or classmates helps in learning the topic with precision. Group discussion on a topic involves sharing of learning by the participants which equally benefits all the participants. In my opinion it is one the best pedagogy.

Classroom discussions or debates enhance public speaking skills. A student develops critical thinking, research skills, organizing thoughts before talking and prioritization of information. They also present an opportunity to get students engaged with the material they are studying in different ways, forming and deconstructing both the opinions of others, and their own. But they can be a little demoralizing; teachers often think that they need to be experienced debaters themselves to get their students involved. This is not true. The truth is that there is no wrong or right way to debate in the classroom. The idea is to find out which way best suits the classes’ learning outcomes.

The composition of the class profile matters. The more diverse a class is the discussions benefit more. There is a difference between debate and group discussion: Debate is for argument and to attack to win while group discussion is to exchange ideas and opinions for a better understanding of a topic. Debates are supple, they can have as few or as many people involved in them as the need arises. Some like balloon debates. A balloon debate is a debate in which a number of speakers attempt to win the approval of an audience. The audience is invited to imagine that the speakers are flying in a hot-air balloon which is sinking and that someone must be thrown out if everyone is not to die. Each speaker has to make the case why they should not be thrown out of the balloon to save the remainder. Typically each participant speaks on behalf of a famous person, profession, fictional character, etc.

The other type of debate is known as alley debate or spin debate. A spin room also known as spin row or spin alley, is an area in which reporters can speak with debate participants and their representatives after a debate. The name refers to the fact that the participants will attempt to “spin” or influence the perception of the debate among the assembled reporters. Typically alley debates take place in college cafeterias or outside tea stalls, in libraries etc.  Both balloon and alley debates can get large numbers of students involved.

The discussions must be topical in nature which evolves the current affairs. Discussing a topic with friends or classmates helps in learning the topic with perfection. Group discussion on a topic involves sharing of learning by the participants which equally benefits all the participants. Even case study topics can be very interesting.

A participant must approach the case by NOT beginning their thought process by impulsively thinking of what solution would best answer the question that follows the case, for we cannot solve a problem that we do not fully understand. The style must be like this: Situational analysis, Problem definition, Statement of objectives, Evaluation of alternatives, Recommendation or Alternatives.

Students find discussions disillusioned when faculty takes the lead. The faculty can discuss a caselet or a situation published in newspaper regarding famous corporate citizens and allows the students to talk among them. For example: ‘what are reasons of the fall of the star banker of ICICI Bank’? Or ‘Mallya’s extradition from UK can have what kinds of effects on Indian banking’?  

The faculty must use a modular approach to topical coverage to force integration of topical ideas and concepts. The point here is simply that discussions should have designated themes or topics. The focus should be more specific than the generic.

The discussions must be developed from limited set of discussion questions that do not have “known answers.” If the questions are regularly returned to throughout the discussion, they effectively keep the discussion from drifting too far off topic.

Sufficient time must be allowed for discussion to develop. Students must be given time to review, think about, and prepare contributions. Students can be challenged to think about what others have said. They can be asked to summarize or indicate where they think the discussion is leading.

The faculty can turn by turn on different occasions ask the introverts in class to take lead roles. It is essential that students take the lead role in the evolution of a discussion; the faculty must limit his or her involvement in the discussion to a role as facilitator and provocateur and should do so only after other students decline the opportunity.

If need be, a reward system must be established to encourages interaction and peer critique. Students are motivated to participate if contributions to a discussion “count.” Faculties need to devise manageable grading systems and ones that make quality stipulations. The faculty can provide additional participation incentive through assessment.

Many participants in typical group discussions believe that they are expected to stick to a viewpoint defend it forcefully throughout the group discussion, and ‘win’ the discussion by knocking out other participants with brilliant arguments. Sometimes the group discussions become an ugly show with loud, rhetorical attacks amplified by aggressive body language.  While uninhibited aggression is detrimental to all types of communication, a when group discussions turn into debate, it becomes vigorous interaction and arguments burst out from all directions. Such a process presumes adherence to the viewpoints or opinions which are arrived at extensive preparation, and usually do not change during the course of the discussions.

After the Discussion: The faculty must allow students to rethink, equip and improve whenever a discussion takes place. It must be a regular practice of pedagogy so that students learn the best way to approach the topic. They must take brief notes on how each discussion went and use these as the basis for reorganizing their strengths and weaknesses, for improving their presentation skills, rethinking the material included, or developing ideas for future teaching and research projects.

The foundation of pedagogical content is the combination of both knowledge and pedagogy. The teaching sessions become boring if a teacher simply talks the ins and outs of a topic/subject. For example, an Economics teacher has to know exactly how to get the concepts across to students with practical examples and implementation rather than just discussing the definitions and referral points in the class room which are taken from a text book/Internet. The teacher must make efforts to make students to learn about positive reinforcement. Teachers cannot go further than their own knowledge of the subject based on their own understanding. And, students understand the good, better best, fair and poor teaching. They cannot be fooled for long. A good class room session consists of one or more pedagogical tools used by a teacher. Good sessions are always memorable. The pedagogical tools are therefore very important.

A seasoned teacher has a good understanding of where students are coming from in reference to the subject being taught. In order to teach a topic well, teachers have to know what the students bring to the table as far as prior ideas, feelings, experience and strategies. For example, many students tend to have personal thoughts about math word problems. A math teacher with pedagogical content knowledge would address each of these prior conceptions and show why each one is inaccurate. The teacher would help the students understand how to break down word problems to make them clearer and see them from a different perspective; after all the learning curve changes in each class room.

In every teacher’s career comes a time when the teacher needs to evaluate the amount of learning taken place in his/her class and its effectiveness. I think one of the best tools for measuring the efficacy is quizzes. There is no elaborate definition of quiz; but, it helps a teacher in gathering information whether learning objectives are met or not. Quizzes help students individually to increase their knowledge they may already know on a certain topic. They also help them to know whether certain topic is helpful in the future.  A quiz can be effectively be used from KG to PG at all levels of education.

Before using a quiz, teachers must determine what objectives need to be met. The primary function of the quiz is to evaluate student learning in relation to the teachers instructional methods. Teachers must analyze the results of the quiz and shows statistics and reports about those results. A well designed quiz will help motivate your students, highlighting the subject areas and skill-sets in which they are particularly strong, while pointing out those in which they would benefit by spending more time.

Teachers must be sure that quizzes are developed around content-related questions.
What you get out of your quizzes is determined by the content-related questions asked. If you want to find out how well students have mastered the concept; relate or ask questions pertaining to the concept only. Make sure to always keep simple questions in your quizzes.

As a teacher, your teaching efficacy is shown in the result of the quiz. Did your students pass or fail the quiz? That answer alone will measure student understanding and your teaching effectiveness, and allow you to see where you stand. By looking at the questions which your students answered incorrectly you can determine where there might have been a gap in instruction, or where students became confused. The students must be informed in advance to read up particular subject material in details before they take a quiz. They do not bother much about reading or learning usually. Quizzing keeps them busy with their studies because they get evaluated and they benefit from the feedback that tells them what aspects of their learning are incorrect. Most important thing about quizzes is that they should be treated as an interactive exercise rather than an evaluation. In addition to reducing the anxiety associated with evaluation, this encourages students to use the quizzes as an index of what they need to study.

As a teacher, I have used quizzes maximum because I have seen students can master the material. There should be session followed by the quiz where both teacher and students can talk on various issues/topics asked in the quiz. Preferably, for each question answered incorrectly, feedback should include information on where to turn to find the correct answer.

Item selection should be randomized to make it harder for students to cheat. If every student sees the same quiz items in the same order, students will compare notes and prepare answers to the questions rather than understanding the material. For the same reasons, there should be several different versions of each quiz item.

Quizzes should be due frequently. In keeping with the idea that accumulated practice is less effective than spacing learning throughout the semester, quizzes should be due on a regular basis, say once a week. The number of questions that should appear on a quiz should be based on what the course instructors consider to be appropriate for the class.

When using multiple-choice questions, wherever possible the order of the answers should be scrambled. This makes it harder for students to focus on the answer order and tends to focus them on what the correct answer is. Essay questions may be appropriate for quizzing but should be used sparingly, if only because of the time and effort required to grade them.

Use quizzes for a positive fortification in the classroom.

Writing or scripting a syllabus presents some challenges.  On the one hand, as the first communication with the students, the syllabus needs to convey the excitement and interest of the course, and give the students a sense of how this course will transform them and why they might want to take it.  On the other hand is poses great threat if it is not covered in experiential manner in the higher education.

The syllabus plays a vital role in both learning and teaching. It ensures a fair and impartial understanding between the instructor and students; it also defines policies relating to the course. Policies such as what students would be learning in a course, code of conduct, assessment parameters, books to be referred, pedagogy etc. In short, it provides a roadmap of course.

Both syllabus and curriculum are often confused. While, curriculum is a focus of study, consisting of various courses all designed to reach a particular proficiency or qualification, a syllabus usually contains specific information about the course. It’s an outline and summary of topics to be covered in a training course. It is descriptive often either set out by an exam board.

Human life, however varied, consists in the performance of specific activities.  Education is supposed to prepare us for life. It is suppose to prepare us positively and adequately for the specific activities we choose. The education that we take is required to strengthen us to go out into the world of affairs and help us survive the profession that we choose. And higher education should improve our abilities, aptitudes, habits, approaches and manners to cope in our professional lives. These objectives should govern the syllabus. The course coverage therefore should be definite and exclusive.  The syllabus should be one such that enables the students to have series of experiences sensitizations of the world of affairs.

The progress in higher education all over the world is set the thinkers and advocates considering the following facts about educational purposes the syllabus:

1.    What educational purposes a specific course should seek to attain?

2.   What educational experiences should be provided that is likely to attain these purposes?

3.   How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?

4.   How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?

Since the real purpose of higher education is not to have the instructor performs certain activities but to bring about significant changes in the students’ views and sensitizing them to the professional world, it becomes important to recognize that any statements of objectives of the curriculum  should be a statement of changes to take place in the students. The syllabus should mention the learning edge; what one already knows and how the course will push the student beyond the realm.

Today, students who come to learn the higher and technical courses complain that the syllabus has not been covered scientifically; it has not guided them sufficiently; the objectives are not met up with; in short they are left and dry. Sad, today syllabuses are not learner-centered. They are teacher centered. We see lot of overlapping of subject matter, unwanted repetition, and sluggish treatments to the topics covered. This tires the student and teacher both.

A review of higher education literature reveals a growing interest in instruction using learning technologies. Have we evaluated the specific needs and questions of the participants?  There is growing mismatch between the new learning technologies and the teacher’s ability to cope with the technologies defeats the syllabus coverage. Many teachers are resistant or unable to use the learning technologies which results in failing the program.

The gap between industry’s needs and the academic community’s aspirations is becoming larger in other words this gap is widening every year. Compulsions of a global market are bound to force industry in general to look afresh at their innovative processes and efforts. This process must be guided by higher and technical education by a complete paradigm shift from a simple capital intensive trading to a technology driven entrepreneurial one. In today’s world technology is driving our lives. New technologies are certainly part of the changes which in turn have changed the processes. We cannot afford to be cocooned in our creations and drag them on for our lives; our higher educational processes hence would need swift changes one of them is changing the syllabus after regular intervals and second regular review of them.

Academic integrity and honesty are essential in the development of a professional education syllabus. The professional courses are generally excellent at teaching the numbers and analysis of risk with mathematical tools to evaluate the time value of money etc. They should prepare students to live with risk, balancing professional and personal life, fairness in life, that selling right is listening first, and solving people’s problems and empathies with them. Most importantly each higher education program should emphasize first on execution than only on making strategies.

Tips for effectiveness of syllabus:

• Communicate with articulation course learning outcomes.
• List major topics the course will cover.
• Provide a list of reading materials (briefly annotated).
• List textbooks, reference books, journals and magazines and other course materials and where to find them.
• List how the course would be graded course requirements such as assignments, exams, attendance, participation, etc.
• Provide a detailed schedule, weekly or daily. Include what will be covered, assignment and test dates, learning activities such as group work or presentations, guest speakers, field trips, library information sessions, etc.
• Consider using graphics, pictures etc as these give a friendlier approach.
• Last but not the least, keep a friendly tone, and let your syllabus not startle the students.