A checklist for inclusive classroom discussions

A pattern often emerges in university classroom discussions: a few confident students dominate while many others remain silent. It is especially common in first-year English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classes.

Silence, however, does not always reflect a lack of interest. Some students might have useful ideas but feel unprepared or nervous about sharing them. Others might be willing to contribute but are unsure about how to enter the conversation, respond to classmates or keep the discussion moving.

This matters because discussion is not just a form of speaking practice. It is also a way to help students test ideas, listen to different perspectives and build confidence as members of a learning community. When only a few students speak and many others stay quiet, the class loses valuable voices and perspectives.

To address this issue, our teaching team developed a “speak-up” checklist, Voice. The aim is not to force every student to speak in the same way but to make participation simpler and less intimidating.

The checklist includes five common discussion actions:

• Viewpoint: prepare a clear stance
• Offer: present your view
• Identify agreement: agree with a peer’s idea and give a brief reason
• Challenge: disagree respectfully with a peer’s idea and give a brief reason
• Enquire: ask one follow-up or clarifying question.

Let students know that they do not have to tick off all of these in order, and that it is not a formal assessment task. Instead, the checklist functions as a menu of common ways to join a discussion. In one class, a student might simply share a view or ask a question. In another, the same student might feel ready to agree with a peer, disagree politely or build on someone else’s idea. Even completing one item can count as meaningful participation, especially for students who usually stay silent. 

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Before discussion: reduce anxiety

You can share the checklist with students the day before class through your usual communication channels, and they can spend 10 minutes preparing one or two items. 

This preparation time gives more reserved students a chance to organise their ideas before class. It also shows that students can prepare to speak in a seminar.

During discussion: guide participation

Teachers can display the checklist in different formats, depending on the aim of the activity. It could be on a slide, a handout or on five separate cards.

The card version can make the activity more focused and interactive. Each student receives one card with one discussion move. During the discussion, they try to use that move at least once. Teachers can rotate the cards in later discussions so that students practise different “moves” over time. 

You can introduce sentence starters to further support students. They might include phrases such as “I agree with this because”, “I see it differently because” or “Could you explain that point a little more?”. By providing such phrases, we can lower the barrier to speaking, especially for students who are still building confidence.

After discussion: foster reflection

Ask students to spend five minutes ticking off the items they completed and choosing one item to try next time.

The activity can help students notice small signs of progress. A student who asked one question today might feel more ready to share a view next week. A student who agreed with a peer might later try polite disagreement.

Over time, students develop confidence and teachers gain a clearer picture of what students find easy or difficult. If many students avoid respectful disagreement, for example, you can offer more sentence starters for challenging ideas politely in the next class.

Adapting the Voice checklist across disciplines

The checklist can be adapted for many teaching contexts. For instance, in a literature seminar, students might use it to respond to an interpretation. In a business class, they might use it to discuss a case. In a science class, they might use it to question a method or evaluate evidence.

You can also change the wording to match students’ academic level. For advanced students, the items can include steps such as “build on the evidence” or “compare viewpoints”. You can also reduce the number of items to three for less confident students. 

A more inclusive discussion does not always need a complex redesign. Sometimes, students simply need to know what participation can look like, and to believe that a small contribution still counts.

Ya Zhang is an associate language lecturer and Shuhao Zhang and Yu Liu are language lecturers. All authors work at the English Language Centre at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.

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