The essence of a healthy democracy is open dialogue about issues of public concern. An integral part of the training of young citizens, therefore, includes the discussion of controversial social, political, and economic policies. The use of classroom discussions as a pedagogical technique to examine controversial issues is explored by considering: (1) the nature of controversial issues discussions; (2) the importance of discussion in social studies instruction; (3) what is known about the use of controversial issues discussions in social studies; and (4) suggestions for implementing controversial issues discussions in the classroom. (DB)