The change of participants’ perspectives on group discussion at an early stage

Abstract

Although group discussion (GD) skills are essential for human interactions, few studies have investigated proper interventions for novice students. Participants’ recognitions of what happens in GD can be an important cue to grasp what they pay attention to. This paper analyzes the change of participants’ perspectives within the three domains of GD based on previous research: (1) Individual, (2) Group, and (3) Knowledge. Ten GD sessions were carried out with four or five participants from the same university. The participants filled out a questionnaire that included free writing descriptions, and their responses were analyzed for content. A comparison between the first and last five sessions showed that “Listening skill” within the (1) Individual domain decreased while “Summary skill” in the (2) Group domain increased in the latter sessions. These results show the participants changed their perspectives from individualistic to group interactive as they accumulated experience, suggesting the benefits of GD.