1. Session 4 Creating a safe climate for discussion
Welcome the group and do introductions.
Session 4 Creating a safe climate for discussion

2. Introduction
Aim
to explore the conditions for creating a safe climate for classroom discussion
Objectives
to explore the challenges around creating a safe climate for classroom discussion
to encourage self-reflection
to provide ways to create a safe climate for classroom discussion
Refer to the slide.

3. Activity 1: Review your practice
Work in pairs.
Share ideas about discussion strategies you use in your classroom.
Write down your ideas and share with another pair.
Share ideas with the rest of the group.
In this activity you will explore your current practice and classroom procedures for ensuring safe discussion by using a Think, Pair and Share strategy.
Once teachers have completed the activity, facilitate discussion using the questions below.
Questions
What teaching and learning approaches or strategies do you use for discussion in your subject?
Would you consider them to be effective? How might you know?
Is there a common approach to facilitating discussion in different subjects, for different year groups or for a range of pupil abilities?
Is there a difference in how you would approach discussing a non-controversial issue and a controversial issue?

4. Activity 2: Role play Form groups of four or five.
Agree on a controversial issue to discuss in your group.
Select a role to play in a group discussion.
Only the person who selects the teacher role should share their role with others.
Take five minutes to think about how you will play your chosen role.
Think about your role’s body language and tone.
Print and cut out several copies of the role cards from Resource Sheet 5: Teaching a controversial issue (Appendix 4).
Introduce Activity 2 to teachers.
Introduction
In this activity you are going to participate in a role play. This is a method you can also use with pupils when teaching controversial issues. The purpose of this activity is to make you think about how group dynamics can make teaching controversial issues challenging. It is also meant to be enjoyable. Pupils’ personalities, backgrounds, experiences, values, needs and agendas will all have an influence on the discussion.
One of you will be the teacher. The others in the group will each select the role of a pupil. Each role will have their own characteristics. Don’t share your role with others (unless you are the teacher). The role play cards only provide prompts or hints for direction, so you will have to use your imagination to create your pupil persona in the activity.
Give each group one set of role cards in an envelope.
Facilitate the activity.
Walk around the different groups and note useful points for feedback once the groups have finished their discussions.

5. Activity 2: Role play debrief
Share your experiences of the role play.
How did you feel during the activity?
What were you thinking about?
What different facilitator roles did the teacher use?
Facilitate discussion using the questions on the slide and your own notes from observing the groups in Activity 2.

6. Challenges to creating a safe climate for discussion

7. Challenges to creating a safe climate for discussion
Spontaneous comments Research (Philpott et al., 2011) suggests that one of the biggest challenges for teachers is how to respond to spontaneous comments on controversial issues from pupils, both in the classroom and corridors. What challenges does this situation present?
Research (and your own experience as teachers) would suggest that one of the main challenges when teaching controversial issues is having to manage unexpected, spontaneous comments. A pupil or group of pupils may say something without thinking, or they may say something more deliberate to test your response. How you respond to spontaneous comments is important because it reassures pupils that you are managing the discussion and will help to define boundaries.
Facilitate discussion using the questions below.
Questions
What type of comments would you consider to be inappropriate?
Can you suggest reasons why some pupils might react in this way?
What challenges would this situation present to the teacher’s authority?
How might this situation affect discussion of controversial issues in the classroom?
Can you think of any scenarios featuring possible spontaneous comments from pupils? How would you respond to these scenarios?

8. Challenges to creating a safe climate for discussion
Intense, overheated emotional discussions
Closed viewpoints
Polarisation of opinion between pupil groups
Pupils’ lack of engagement
Pupils express strong views contrary to the values of the majority of the class or school
Prejudice
Unchallenged consensus opinion
Expand on the bullet points raised in the slide, using the notes below to help you.
Other challenges to creating a safe climate for discussion include:
Intense, overheated emotional discussions: pupils often have strong personal views and feelings about issues. Pupil comments can be guided by their emotions and as a result they are less likely to give a reasoned response.
Closed viewpoints: pupils may think their views are ‘right’ and be unwilling to accept others’ views.
Polarisation of opinion between pupil groups: pupils’ opinions may be divided on certain issues. Each side will have strong views and it may be difficult to persuade each group that there may be merit in the other group’s argument.
Pupils’ lack of engagement: pupils may find the issue boring, especially if they have discussed it before.
Prejudice: some pupils may have prejudiced views about an issue, leading to prejudiced comments.
Unchallenged consensus opinion: pupils may readily agree on an issue without challenge, leading to narrow and superficial discussion.
Facilitate discussion using the question below.
Ask teachers to consider each challenge listed in turn, or alternatively select a few for discussion.
Question
What teaching and learning approaches could you take to overcome these challenges?

9. Creating a safe climate for discussion
Support pupils to:
understand there are no ‘right’ and wrong’ answers
understand that they might not reach agreement in all discussions
search and critically examine evidence
give equal importance to conflicting views and opinions
be open-minded
understand that all evidence is open to scrutiny and can be contradicted
Introduce the slide topic.
Of course it is important to create a safe climate for discussion. However, it is also important to provide pupils with opportunities to develop their communication and thinking skills by participating in reasoned discussion.
This means that you should support pupils to think critically and make reasoned arguments.
Refer to the points on the slide to explain to teachers how they can support reasoned discussion.

10. Creating a safe climate for discussion (cont.)
Support pupils to:
challenge their views of others
accept their views will be challenged
respond positively to criticism
justify their views with a reasoned argument
Refer to the slide.

11. Classroom procedures and routines
These should include:
ground rules
small group work
appropriate strategies to encourage free expression including minority views
acknowledgement of disagreements and consensus
positive ways of dealing with spontaneous remarks from pupils
Creating a safe climate for discussion depends on building good teacher/pupil relationships. Over time pupils will build trust with their teacher and develop the confidence and willingness to discuss controversial issues.
The following are some recommended classroom procedures and routines which will help you to create a safe climate for discussion.
Refer to the points on the slide.

12. Creating ground rules Always show respect to each other.
Listen without interruption when one person is speaking.
Do not make personal comments.
Use questions to clarify information or seek more information about others’ views.
Discriminatory comments or put-downs will not be acceptable.
Be prepared to justify your ideas with evidence.
There is no agreed set of ground rules for creating a safe climate for discussion. It is common practice for teachers to discuss and agree these with pupils. The ground rules on the slide are an example.
Facilitate discussion using the questions below.
Questions
Are there any ground rules that you would change, or other ground rules you would like to include?
Would these rules work for you when teaching a controversial issue?

13. Creating ground rules (cont.)
Make clear to pupils:
how they can let you/others know when they feel uncomfortable about discussing an issue
how you will communicate to them when they break the ground rules
what will happen if they break the ground rules
It is also important that pupils have a way to show that they are uncomfortable when discussing an issue and that this will be acknowledged and respected by you and other pupils.
You should also agree a way of communicating to pupils when they are about to or have broken the ground rules, and what the consequences will be.

14. Activity 3: Managing group discussion – Diamond nine statements
Work in groups of four or five.
Place your first priority card at the top, followed by two in second place, three in third place, a further two in fourth place and then the card which represents the lowest priority at the bottom.
Use Resource Sheet 6: Managing group discussion - Diamond nine statements.
I think we have all agreed that managing group discussion about a controversial issue can be challenging. In this activity you will have nine statements. Each statement refers to actions you can take to help manage discussions. You will work in groups and agree on their priority.
Show teachers the next slide to illustrate how they should place their cards.

15. Diamond nine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
This slide illustrates how cards should be placed in a diamond formation.
The numbers represent the group’s opinion of the priority level of each statement, with one as the highest priority and nine as the lowest priority. 9

16. Debrief: self-reflection
Write down three ways you have learned to help establish a safe and secure climate for discussion.
Write down two strategies you might use to help safeguard the classroom climate during difficult discussions.
Write down one question you would like to ask, or you feel still needs to be addressed.
Facilitate discussion.
Use the questions on the slide to prompt discussion. Then move to a general discussion about the session.