Class discussion and class participation: Determination of their relationship

Abstract

Generally regarded as important ways for students to engage in class, class discussion and class participation are placed at the heart of the classroom learning experiences. This paper aimed to determine the correlation between class discussion and class participation at Wenzhou Kean University in China. Convenience and purposive sampling of 105 undergraduates of which majority are English as a Second Language (ESL) learners participated in the online survey of this cross-sectional correlation study. Descriptive and inferential statistics have been used in the study to provide in-depth data analysis. Class discussion and class participation had a strong and positive significant relationship indicating that when there is enough time given for a group of three to five students to discuss general and creative topics on questions given by instructors before the discussion, students are more confident to actively participate in class. Finally, this paper gave relevant recommendations to the class instructors.