The Skillful Teacher by Brookfield Stephen D

Author:Brookfield, Stephen D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published: 2010-05-10T16:00:00+00:00

Conversational Roles

Students often find it helpful to know at the outset of a discussion the sort of conversational role they are required to play. Knowing that they have a particular task to fulfill seems to remove some of the performance anxiety created by the invisible norm. Practice in playing different conversational roles helps create opportunities for the more tentative students to speak, thereby building their confidence. Any roles assigned must, of course, be alternated so that everyone takes their turn. It is an abuse of this exercise to assign the quietest role to the most vociferous student each week. A number of commonly used conversational roles are given below.

• Problem, Dilemma, or Theme Poser. This participant has the task of introducing the topic of conversation. She draws on her own ideas and experiences as a way of helping others into conversation about the theme.

• Reflective Analyst. This member keeps a record of the conversation’s development. Every twenty minutes or so she gives a summary that focuses on shared concerns, issues skirted, and emerging common themes.

• Scrounger. The scrounger listens for helpful resources, suggestions, and tips that participants have voiced as they discuss how to work through a problem or situation. She keeps a record of these ideas that is read aloud before the session ends.

• Devil’s Advocate. This person listens carefully for any emerging consensus. When she hears this she formulates and expresses a contrary view. This keeps groupthink in check and helps participants explore a range of alternative interpretations.

• Detective. The detective listens carefully for unacknowledged, unchecked, and unchallenged biases that seem to be emerging in the conversation. As she hears these she brings them to the group’s attention. She assumes particular responsibility for alerting group members to concerns of race, class, and gender. She listens for cultural blindness, gender insensitivity, and comments that ignore variables of power and class.

• Theme Spotter. This participant identifies themes that arise during the discussion that are left unexplored and that might form a focus for the next session.

• Umpire. This person listens for judgmental comments that sound offensive, insulting, and demeaning, and that contradict ground rules for discussion generated by group members.

• Textual Focuser. Whenever assertions are made that seem unconnected to the text being discussed, this person asks the speaker to let the group know where in the text the point being made occurs.

• Evidential Assessor. This student asks speakers to give the evidence for empirical generalizations that are stated as self-evident fact but that actually seem more like opinion.

• Synthesizer. This person attempts to underscore links between different contributions.

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