Discussions

Ongoing

Discussions should be student driven and teacher facilitated. This principle is at the heart of PhD Science. Your lessons include sample teacher questions and sample student responses—these are an educative component that illustrate what a classroom discussion might sound like, not a script to follow word for word. The Implementation Guide also includes Collaborative Conversation Prompts to support students' discourse and language development.

Give students time to think before they respond. Let them jot ideas in their Logbooks or share with a partner before the whole-class discussion. This practice benefits all learners and consistently produces richer conversation. Encourage students to build on each other’s thinking, not just respond to you.

The Socratic Seminar at the end of each module is the culminating discussion experience—students synthesize module learning, discuss ideas with peers, and present evidence to support or refute claims.