Group discussions: an active learning resource for school and kindergarten leaders?
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version

Date
2024Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Abstract
Background: In higher education programmes, group discussions are commonly used as a form of active learning to support students in their learning and knowledge development beyond what is provided by traditional lectures. However, such student-centred learning approaches and methods have received scant attention in empirical research.
Purpose: This study, which used an action research design, investigated how group discussions, as an extension of lectures, can contribute to students’ learning. The findings are intended to support comprehensive insights into, and further development of, the authors’ and others’ higher-education teaching practices.
Method: The study context was a National Kindergarten and School Leadership Programme offered by one Norwegian university, where the co-author of this article was located. Our research question was: How do students perceive group discussions about a lecture as contributing to their learning; and what can we learn from this about our own teaching practices? The core data were students’ reflection notes, with observational data used as background material. Data were analysed thematically.
Findings: The analysis indicated that group discussions as extensions of lectures can provide learning opportunities that promote the students’ learning, both collectively and individually. Through group discussions, learning opportunities emerge in the interaction between theoretical knowledge addressed in the lecture and practical, experience-based knowledge based on the students’ ideas from their organisational contexts. In this interaction, learning experiences are produced that provide the students with increased understanding and new perspectives about how they can drive development in their practice contexts and how they, as school leaders, can act in new ways.
Conclusion: The findings offer insight into how students’ experiences of group discussions, based on lectures, contribute to their learning. However, they also reveal that organisational and structural conditions related to poor quality task design and some elements of the discussions themselves can inhibit learning potential.