The Latest from VEA

How you ask your students questions and how you respond matter.

The phrasing and delivery of the questions you ask play a huge role in the responses students give. A few simple ideas can go a long way toward better interaction and better understanding. Here are a few tips from VEA Teaching & Learning:

• Pause after asking a question. The pause clearly indicates the question is meant for everyone, not just one or two quick thinkers. A pause of three to five seconds will enable the slower thinker to participate and give all students time to think carefully and answer with confidence.
• Avoid answering your own questions. Doing so can make a discussion feel more like a lecture.
• Follow up student responses with the question, “Why?” This will help students who could not/did not respond to the question understand how the answer was reached.
• Avoid frequent questions that require a “Yes” or “No” answer.
• Avoid directing a question to a student for disciplinary reasons. Firing a quick question at an inattentive student usually results in a response such as, “What?” It only alienates that student.
• Avoid repeating a student’s answer. Repeating the answer can encourage students to listen only to the teacher.
• Insist on attentiveness during questioning periods.
• Avoid calling on a particular student before asking the question. Calling on a student first and cause other students not to listen. You want all students to be engaged.
• Avoid “giveaway” facial expressions to student responses. Try not to show disappointment when a student gives an incorrect answer. If a student has volunteered, at least he or she has tried. Don’t let your reactions discourage students from contributing to class discussion.
• Avoid these types of questions:
• How many of you understand that?
• Does everybody see that?
• Do you want me to go over that again?
• Did I go too fast for you?

Only a few students will have enough confidence to ask questions when they are confused. Few students, especially those with a lack of confidence or those not doing well, are going to confess in front of an entire class that they don’t understand.