Development of a classroom discussion scale for self-assessment purposes by high school students and teachers

Darrin Thomas

Authors

Darrin Thomas Asia-Pacific International University, Saraburi 18180, Thailand

Keywords:

classroom discussion, components, ESL students, high school students, international campus, information processing

Abstract

Educators worldwide appreciate the value of discussion in ESL classrooms as a means to support the development of higher thinking skills as well as the language development of ESL students. However, there is a lack of instruments in identifying the main components of classroom discussion. The purpose of this study was to engage ESL high school students at an international campus in the task of developing a scale that would help students self-assess the key components of their classroom discussions. The study generated a 14-item scale with three main components, which are flow of ideas, information processing, and discussion barriers. The study used both orthogonal and oblique rotations of the factors. Cronbach’s alpha indicated that the scale was reliable. The development of this scale can be of use for researchers as an additional tool for assessing their learning environments.

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