Applicability of Group Discussion as a Pedagogic Practice in a Classroom Setting in Health Education- A Brief Commentary

Abstract:

Student centered learning (SCL) has brought a paradigm shift in the concept of teaching and learning process from an “Instruction paradigm” to “Learning paradigm”. Based on the Andragogic principles of ‘selfdirected learning’ by Malcolm Knowles1 and Blooms taxonomy,2 SCL focuses on the constructivism as a theory of learning, wherein the learners construct and reconstruct knowledge in order to learn effectively. SCL happens most effectively when the learning happens as a part of an activity. This brings about a qualitative change in the learner with the development of critical thinking abilities and sense of empowerment. It aims to give the student greater responsibility enabling him to think, process, analyses, synthesise, criticise, apply and solve problems.

Group Discussion (GD) is one such student participatory technique that involves all the students at a given time. It is like a soccer game where the ball synonymous with topic is passed on to each team member for their inputs and the level of sharing of each participant in reaching to goal is achieved through their active participation and contribution. Read more....