Students that challenge your knowledge
What's the best way to handle a situation when a student catches an incorrect fact you shared to the class on accident?
I remember worrying about making mistakes when I first started teaching. The best technique that has worked for me is to just let the students know I am just as human as they are. When anyone makes an error we can then correct it or discuss it and move on. Sometimes the discussion leads to a great teaching moment.
William,
Great response in terms of how to use a question as a teaching tool. I know your students enjoy your sharing of the answers with them as they quickly can see you have both the experience and expertise to respond to their questions. This establishes you as their learning leader and from there you can build a working relationship with the class.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I find this situation the most interesting. I teach an electrical course. Quite often students come in with misinformation or bits and pieces of different topics that they associate together. They then ask a question very matter of factly and challenge you to answer it.
I stop lecturing, take a deep breath, survey the room and give a few quizzical looks. By then I have the rooms attention because they think I'm stumped and ready to chastise me.
I take this opportunity to break down every part of the question. What terms mean, how they are used and what associations they made are correct and incorrect. My answers are usually accompanied with humorous anecdotes. By the time I'm done I have hopefully convinced the class I know more than they think I do and illustrated how much they have to learn.
There is one problem however. Usually that one question spawns an array of left field questions from other students. Sometimes it gives and opportunity to reinforce what the lecture was originally about or it spirals out of control. Either way it can be a comical and informational segway into a related topic.
Oh yeah, and if you don't know, just say you don't know.
Jocelyn,
Good way to read the class and go with the flow of discussion so everyone is involved and feeling comfortable with sharing. This is how learning is reinforced in the classroom and applications made outside of school.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
In the beginning , I always encouraged student to ask questions at the end of the topic. Students have different learning capabilities. It is not just the students benefit from it but instructor as well. To be an instructor we should always be prepared no matter what the students questions us for as long as it is related to the subject matter. If they go beyond their expectations , I would recommend to give the topic as her/his assignment and share it to the class.
Hello Jessica
It is very important to remember and remind our students that we are human and that we can make mistakes, that in fact ths is one of the three ways a person big or small learns.
Juno,
Thank you for sharing this example with us. It demonstrates how we can adapt our approach to facilitate learning in a way that was not planned. I am sure your students will use this experience in the future as they work with others in their career.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
It has happened to me too. Teaching technology that advances fast i stated that we could not do something that was possible in a new software update. My student said i was wrong, so i approached it as a class activity to do further research on the matter and we all learned the update . I was assertive on expressing that even tough i do not have all the answers i have strategies to share that will allow them to find out new advances in technology and expressed that this is important to maintain your knowledge current.
I believe that challenging someones knowledge does not only means to catch a mistake we have made. We are all humans and this can happen.
I always take extra care reviewing my lectures and the information I share with my students to try to deliver correct facts. If they find a mistake that means they are learning and they have been paying attention! So lets congratulate them for that and thank them for catching that error. Then I would encourage the class to find the most accurate and up to date information in the topic in question.
A different view of this situation is when a student wants to go deeper into the topic we are discussing. This is also great in my opinion since that means he or she is interested in learning further. I would recommend the student where to obtain the information and propose an extra session where we can review our findings and discuss our ideas together. If the student shows more interest in the subject or feels really compelled with the class, I would strongly recommend pursuing a more advance class for the next semester.
I realize that students rely on the knowledge of their instructors preceiving that they know all the answers. However, some information you may not be certain so you have to approach the situation in manner that will help you as the instructor and still keep the student having confidence in you.I will seek and find the answer but if time do not permit I will use other resoures (internet) to answer the question not letting the student know I'm not certain.
This has happened to me! I try to diffuse the situation with humor, and thank them for catching it.
It really depends on the tone in which it was shared. if they phrase it as a question, that makes it easy to handle. When they interrupt you in the middle of speaking, that is trickier.
Over time, I've calibrated my class where I don't go too far out on a limb on things I do not have deep knowledge of, but even then the industry changes so fast that it is difficult to always know everything.
If I'm not sure about something, I usually look it up under the guise of showing them how to find the same information. That's not a well you want to go to very often, but it can bail you out when you aren't sure about something.
Jessica,
Not exactly sure what you are describing. Did the student call you out on this or is the student using the information incorrectly? If he or she called you out you can correct the fact and then just move on. If the student is using the information incorrectly I would talk with the student individually to make sure he or she understands why the information is incorrect and how it impacts the procedures that need to be taken.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
