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 Activities Discussion: Text-based role play

Discussion: Text-based role play

Brief description

This is a discussion activity in which the students team up in groups and discuss a text, taking as their point of departure some roles determined by the teacher in advance. After the discussion, the groups present their conclusions in class, giving everyone an idea of the different texts. The activity is particularly useful for courses involving empirical studies as students often find it difficult to read this type of text material.

Motivation for the activity and required outcome

The activity sets the framework and prepares the students for reading academic material and enables them to view a text from different perspectives. As a teacher you have the opportunity to facilitate discussions in class based on academically relevant content. At the same time, the activity develops the students’ ability to present arguments based on academic rather than personal perspectives.

 

Perform the activity

  • Before the teaching session, you must select some text that are relevant for the course. These are the texts that the students will discuss in class, based on their respective roles.
  • Before the teaching session, you should divide the class into groups of five to six students. Assign one text to each group and ask them to read the text before the session.
  • Prepare a number of relevant roles for the students to “play” when discussing their texts in class. These may be: the author of the article, a critic, a neutral/undecided person or a practitioner. Describe the roles in a document that you print out and bring to the class.
  • Hand out the role descriptions to the students before the session begins so that they know what it takes to “play” the different roles.
  • Set off time in the session for the students to team up in groups where everyone reads the same text. Each group member must “pull” a role which they must use as their point of departure when presenting arguments in the discussion.
  • The groups now discuss for 20 to 30 minutes and end up preparing a review of the empirical study.
  • After the discussion, each group presents the conclusion of their discussion in class.

Options:

  • If the members of one of the groups feel comfortable discussing in front of the class, you may give them the opportunity to do so before the presentation of conclusions. This will give their fellow students an idea of how another group has used their empirical text actively in their arguments and inspire them to use other argumentation methods when engaging in this activity again. At the same time, this will cause the students in the presenting group to develop their oral presentation and argumentation skills.
  • You may assign the same role to several members in a group, which may help prevent the discussion from dying out.

You will need:

  • Handouts for the students with descriptions of the different roles.

Worth considering:

  • Which roles and empirical studies are relevant for your course?

  • Are your students experienced in building arguments? Or is it necessary to give a brief introduction to good argumentation before the activity begins?

  • How do you handle a situation where the tone of the group discussions becomes too harsh?

Revised 24.11.2023
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