Current societies require students to develop society-friendly functions and attitudes as well as higher-order thinking abilities such as problem solving abilities and creativity. These are especially required of college students who are soon to be members of societies. Discussion has been suggested as one of the effective teaching and learning methods for developing higher-order thinking such as critical thinking. This qualitative multiple case study analyzes the applications of discussion methods as a teaching and learning method to college classes. The qualitative data, which include classroom observation data and students’ self-reports of their experiences and thoughts on discussion methods, were collected from students in four different courses with varying characteristics of the courses and the students. The qualitative analyses of the data showed that the effects of discussion methods have different patterns, depending upon the instructional environments.