Admitting when you have doubts or questions
I have worked with other teachers that would never admit they made a mistake. It was very frustrating. In my own experience I was doing a problem at the end of the period and it did not work so I said I will check on it and give you the correct procedure next period. I really got zapped on my evaluation for just that one time. I am not sure about how willing I am to admit a doubt.
If you don't know the answer, admit it and offer to find out. Or admit it and have the class try to find the answer together. This makes you human!
I believe it is important to admit at the beginning of a course that I wont be perfect and know everything. And sometimes when questions arise that I dont know an immediate answer for, I sometimes ask the students to do some work and find the answer. I am not the only one who has to work for students to learn. Learning takes work so we both can put forth an effort to better understand the topic.
Hi Mark,
This is a great strategy because this way the flow of the class is not disrupted but you have referenced the comment or questions in the "Free Parking Zone" and the students know you will come back to it later.
Gary
when i have something i need to come back to or its to early in the lesson to go over i have a spot on the board i call free parking sometimes i draw in the picture from the monopoly board i try to show the students i m not giving them the brush off and iwill get back to their question
I alway tell my students that I will have to get back to them about an answer I am unsure of, that I will need to do some research. But before I do that I try to engage the rest of the class to see if anyone has any knowledge of the subject matter, this helps engage the rest of the class.
Robert Townsend in "Up the Organization" put it well when he said, "admit your mistakes joyfully." When you are at a point that you don't know something...you're learning! And so are the students when you show them how you found the answer. Faking it is toxic and never works in the long run.
Hi Jay,
That has been my experience as well. By letting the students know you don't know the answer to every question but that you will have the answer by the next class meeting shows that you are a dedicated and focused instructor. The students know that you want them to have the answer and that you will do everything you can to find it.
Gary
I have no problem telling a student that I do not know something; I always tell them I will get the answer for them. They are very understanding and they accept that answer. If they think that you are trying to fake an answer they will find out and all the respect you have earned is out the window I believe in just being honest.
I have had both experiences with admitting to a mistake, students losing faith in my abilites and students seeing me as more "human". I think the difference was what I had sone up to that point. In the case where the students seemed to lose faith in me, I was relatively new to teaching and was very black and white, cut and dried in my approach. I think giving that really "no nonsense" impressions caused them to feel let down then when I really made a mistake. On the other hand, as I gained a bit more experience, I had an easier time telling the students that sometimes I'd have to look things up myself and that I didn't know everything. These students tend to treat it more as a group learning effort then. I think the more comfortable I became with teaching, the more confident I was about my knowledge and that made the students more comfortable as well.
I am surprised by this reaction from the students. I have found that it is better to admit that you do not know EVERYTHING about the subject you are teaching; that you are not an expert on everything. Admitting this shows students that you are "human"; you are not a computer or robot that has every answer to every question. Students will relate to you better this way.
I have done this on from time to time in my class also. No one has all the answers in their head. It helps the students understand that knowing how to find the answer is a very important skill.
If I make a mistake I admit it because it shows the students that you are human
yes during class overview i tell the students that no one knows everything and if we have a question we will get the answer and if the student can find the answer make a presentation about it will get extra credit for it no problem and the students responed well to it
When I make a mistake in class, I congratulate the student who questioned me. Once in a while, too, I'll have a typo on a handout. If a student catches an error, I just calmly acknowledge the typo and give the student an extra credit point. It hurts the instructor more if a mistake is ignored. You can save face by congratulating the student for seeing the error.
Hi Bernie,
You are right about using mistakes as learning tools. I can remember some of the mistakes that occurred in my demonstrations from years gone by. Generally the mistakes brought a laugh, and then we reviewed what went wrong and a lesson was learned.
Gary
I agree that mistakes should be tolerated, and in some cases can be used as a learning tool. We do a lot of demonstrations in our classes and they don't always go as planned. I will use these opportunities to get input from the class on other ways to procede. I have found that in most cases students will actually empathise generating spirited discussion.
Hi Adrienne,
Way to go in getting instant answers. I am sure this is fun for the students as they get to see the answer pop up on the screen. This way they have the answer and they are ready to move on to the next point.
Gary
If I have a doubt or a question I cannot answer the class and I google it together on the computer projector and we look for the answer together.
Hi Chris,
You make a good point about how we respond to questions when there is not a clear cut answer. By communicating the information as you mention you are giving them foundational knowledge from which they can form an opinion about the topic and the question that was asked. This is how real life is going to operate and they need skills in the big picture.
Gary
