How to Become More Effective in Discussions? Four Studies

Based on literature and research on discussion and on educational techniques to improve discussion moderators behaviors, a training program was developed for pre- and in-service teacher educators, business and industry executives and university professors (23 to 28 hours, three and a half days). This program was tested for its effectiveness with both low inference as well as high inference observation tools in four studies. Results from these studies show that this minimal training achieved significant improvements on low inference measures of effective discussion and general communicative competence, leading to the identification and validation of effective discussion techniques for teacher training and other settings. Evaluation of the training program in the four and in additional 22 studies was very favorable. (Contains 6 figures and 10 tables.)