Educational Leadership - September 2015

culture. . . . silence isn’t valued. Maybe thinking isn’t either!

As we considered what teachers told us about difficulties in using wait time, three themes emerged: ( 1) pressure to cover the content, ( 2) fear of giving up control, and ( 3) the press of the broader fast-paced culture in which silence feels uncomfortable to people. How might we approach wait time differently—and discuss it with students—so that it’s easier to implement?

Focus on Thinking, Not Waiting

We have attempted to identify the causes, including embedded feelings and fears, behind teachers’ and students’ limited use of wait time. One barrier is students’ failure to understand that waiting is not an end unto itself—that the purpose of pausing is to afford time for a learner to think about what the question is asking, what he or she knows that connects to that question, or what peers think in response to the question. For this reason, in lieu of wait time, we join others who use the term think time—which conveys the purpose for pausing.

In classrooms where students effectively use intentional silences during a questioning sequence, teachers are explicit about the reasons for the two pauses and about their expectations of what students will do during these pauses.

Teaching students the purposes of these pauses addresses one obstacle; however, three more conditions must be met.

First, the questions teachers ask must be worthy of thought—they must not be asking for easily retrievable or memorized information. Attempting to implement think times without attention to the quality of questions is a recipe for disaster. (See “Toward Questions Worthy of the Wait” on p. 49 for some examples—and nonexamples—of suitable questions.)

Second, students must understand what they are supposed to do during the silences. You cannot do wait time to students; you must do it with them.

Third, wait times are generally
not effective or long-lasting if they’re
implemented in isolation from other
expectations that boost learners’
motivation to think and respond—
especially the expectation that their
teacher will use their responses to
support their learning, not to evaluate
or embarrass them. And students must
know they won’t be let off the hook
easily; their teacher will hold them
accountable for answering sooner or
later.

If all students are to use the pause after a teacher question to generate what they think they know about that question, teachers must challenge beliefs many students hold deeply.

Most students believe that teachers
ask questions to get the right answer
(the teacher’s answer) on the floor—
not to assess what students know
and use this feedback to clarify mis-
understandings. So most students stop
thinking if a “right” answer doesn’t
immediately come to mind; many are
afraid to answer incor-
rectly. Such beliefs
impede the use of
questions as checks for
understanding (which
most of us would agree
is a primary purpose
of questioning). Com-
pounding the problem
is many students’ view
that they can opt out of
answering a question
because their teacher
will call on volunteers
to respond.

Pausing after asking a question is of no value to students who hold such beliefs. Students will use Think Time 1 only if they believe their teachers care about what they know (or don’t) and understand that teachers won’t allow them to opt out when called on. This requires teachers to convey and consistently demonstrate to students that everyone is subject

I had a chemistry teacher who made me think by asking questions. He often answered our questions with more questions and pushed us to be confident in our answers by asking, “Are you sure?” even when we were correct.

It’s a strategy that I used with my own students and now encourage other teachers to use. At first, students react by retracting or erasing their answer (just like I did in chemistry class), but soon enough this question pushes students to think about why their answer is correct. It encourages students to have reasoning behind their answers, not just the “right” answer.