The next essay, "Improving Discussions" by William E. Cashin and Philip C. McKnight, argues that discussion as a technique while appropriate for a number of a number of contexts and suitable for a number of pedagogical goals needs always to be evaluated in terms of one's course goals. They argue that discussion while not appropriate for "covering significant amounts of content" (28) are "appropriate for higher-order objectives: application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation" (28). And they note that some teachers may be uncomfortable with the diminished control one has in discussion in contrast with the level of control one has in a lecture. But after raising these and other relevant issues regarding the costs and benefits of discussion pedagogies, Cashin and McKnight make a number of cogent and specific suggestions to improve the cognitive, intellectual, and affective values of learning, and to increase participation. Here again, the suggestions are couched as specific behaviors that any teacher from the newest recruit to most experienced veteran can adopt and adapt. For instance, they suggest that we ask students to clarify and support their opinions with information and argument, that we ask open-ended questions that permit and encourage students to elaborate and think through their answers. I have found their suggestion to rephrase questions that elicit no or off-point answers by focusing on the material at hand to be a powerful tool in my literature classrooms because rephrasing helps me reinforce the very techniques of inquiry that I attempt to model. Repeated in this essay also is perhaps the single specific technique that is most important to effective learning through discussion: giving the students time to reflect and think through their responses. I found the discussion of the affective aspects of learning thought provoking and challenging but convincing; after all, we are or probably should be in the business of educating the whole person, a value-laden enterprise. The authors present a short, thoughtful check-list of specific classroom behaviors that work toward addressing our concerns (and those of the students) with feelings, interests, and values. Of these, I think especially wise the admonition to challenge the students but not to threaten them, a sometimes difficult balance to achieve, and the advice to use personal anecdotes in moderation to show the students that we are, after all, human, and share a common ground from which we may all advance. [Editor's note: See "Self-Reference and Instructor Disclosure: Is Gossip Easier to Remember?" on this topic in this journal.] The essay also reminds us of the importance of gate-keeping behaviors in stimulating and managing effective discussions.