Leaving time for answers
I have recently become credentialed as an instructor for an APTA course. As part of the credentialing, we were required to teach portions of the curriculum in front of fellow students. A consistent comment from my peers who were assessing me was that I did not leave enough time after my questions to allow for answers. I am learning to be comfortable with the silence as the students process the information.
I always try to challenge my students. I also leave plenty of time for them to answer. When I have a very small, more intimate setting and the students are more comfortable with each other, I always encourage the students to help each other out if one doesn't know the answer.
My class is relatively small, on average 10-15 students. This allows me to get to know the level of comprehension for each student when asking questions and waiting for a reply. Before I ask the questions I usually know who to direct it to based on what I think is the difficulty of the question. Challenging the student to "dig deep" in his/her memory or processing the information is a great way to build self esteem of the student. If a student doesn't get the answer I am looking for, I lead him/her to answer with a series of questions. This lets them think they figured out the answer on their own or I get others involved.
Hi Heather, Thanks for your post to the forum. After many years of working with new instructors, I have found getting comfortable with "wait time" to be a common problem. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career.
Susan Polick
