PREPARING FOR DISCUSSION
Setting Discussion Themes
Themes, issues, questions, and topics for discussion should be not be too factual or uncontroversial, nor should any questions be raised which learners are able to answer in the course of their preparatory reading. Legge (1971) proposes that "discussion is most appropriate to those subjects concerned with controversial issues about which there are different but equally tenable opinions" (p. 78). It is also useful to present groups with questions to be considered, rather than abstract themes. A program director of a course for new adult education instructors would be better advised to ask participants to consider "In what ways do lectures promote or inhibit retention of knowledge?" than to ask them to attend a discussion on "The Lecture as a Teaching Method."