Digging out the answer
What do you do when you ask a question and get... deathly silence? You could, of course, asnwer the question yourself, and sometimes it may be the quickest way to keep up your momentum. But answer too many questinos yourself and you're teaching the class that if they sit silent you'll do all the work. A technique I have used is to rephrase the question to make it easier to answer. Simpli-fying is one way (instead of asking for all four vital signs, ask for just one). Or association ("we did this on Monday just after our review"). Or connecting to TV shows they have seen ("what do they do first when an emergency is brought into the ER?"). Or focusing on a clue (" what word do you see inside "electrocardiography").
When a student cant come up with an answer or has answered incorrectly I will ask the other students if they can help him out...this will usually start a dialogue that will result in a correct answer
Hi, Fred. Thanks for your discussion post.
This is quite helpful to me! I teach fully online courses, but even within our online discussion board students are "silent". Their silence is obvious in one of two ways (usually): 1. no post(s) at all and 2. a post of confusion and frustration with the topic.
When there are no posts from a student, I typically e-mail them to offer assistance. Sometimes, the student is having personal issues but often he/she is confused. I like your idea of SIMPLIFYING the forum question. This will likely help all students. I plan to use your technique when this happens again in one of my online discussions.
Melonie
HI Andrew- Welcome to ED 103! It's great that the "Dead Silence" issue is not a problem for you. I'll wager that it's because you are practiced at being able to ease them to the answer by using hints, as you point out. Best wishes - Susan
I have no problem with the silence. I do check with a hint question to get the class back on track.
Sometimes when I ask a question that no one understands...it is not because of the content but the way I ask it. I have taken other courses that tell us that we must sometimes digress in approach to bring our class up in level. You got to identify and talk in their words....sometimes!
I generally try to ask the question in other words and with another technique. I try to inject a little of their personal lives into the question if at all possible to make it a little more personal to them.
My theory is, it is easier to talk about what you know and one of the things you know best is yourself. So, by introducing a bit of their experiences into the question or making it more personal, they will feel more comfortable engaging it and more likely maintain their interest.
It has also helped me , I struggle with being silent when diggin for answers to very technical questions so i rephraze alot with moderate results
Games work for me. When I turn it into a competition (them against me) my students tend to spark up. I never let them actually beat me until the last game of my moduale, but the times before that they get so close. That tends to drive them insane being so close that even the ones that don't like to study do study harder for that extra little bit to beat me the next time.
I teach basic physics and fluid dynamics to students at a deep sea commercial diving school. When faced with complete silence or obvious ignorance of the solution(s) to an advanced problem, I tend to use a rather juvenile analogy problem to get the class started on questioning, then progress to a different, more advanced analogy, and then guide them to lead themselves to the answers to the original problem. I try to use examples of daily household experiences for my analogies. Trying to think of appropriate anologies sometimes challenges me more than than the attempts to gain comprehension by my students.
Since you have found a solution it seems like this may no longer be a problem for you Ron.
Another technique that I have found is that I maybe asking too much in one question. When this happens break the question up into smaller components leading to the question then ask it again. This has been one of my many problems.
Our culture becomes uneasy at long silences. Wait a little bit, it feels awkward, but the learners are feeling it as well. 99% of the time some one will answer.
I agree that humor has relaxed my students. If it is a new class, they are as afraid of you as you are of them. Or sometimes I catch myself talking too much which leaves no room for a question.
Silence doesn't bother me as an instructor. It allows me time to see if the class is paying attention, or if they truly do not understand the question. If the latter, I try to pose another similar question, answer, and then ask the original question again.
Hi Amy- I think you'll find "waiting time" a litle uncomfotable at first but give it time!(-;
Susan
I have never incorporated the "wait time" when asking questions. I can't wait to try this on my students.
I agree as I find students can't recall even though they do know the answers. I guess that is when we have to add the "hint" questions?
I think that at times we all feel that way. Additional wait time gives those who may be hesitant to jump in the opportunity to answer the question.
