Its primary value resides in the fact that assessment was used to assess achievement of the full range of objectives set for the class. Teachers in our study felt that assessment really helps to cement the relationship between student and teacher. Rather than feel punished for weaknesses, the discovery of a weakness leads to new learning. That Promote Learning Teachers told us that the type of discussions they like to promote are those where there is a specific topic or theme, all students are participating, remarks are relevant to the topic, opinions are offered with evidence, students are listening and talking to one another, and teachers are acting as guides and facilitators. Advantages to discussion include teaching students to communicate their opinions persuasively, listen to other opinions, collaborate with others, and sort out subordinate and coordinate relationships between ideas.
Students learn how other students think.
To make meaning out of discussions requires organizing information into coherent summaries. Students rarely emerge from discussions having all learned the same thing. The teachers in our study reported that learning to collaborate is excellent preparation for the world of work. Teachers felt that certain learning tasks were better done collaboratively than alone. Not all tasks were assigned to groups.