In one of my inquiry resources, A Practical Guide to Teaching and Learning, I read about wait time (or think time) in which teachers give students some time to process a question before answering. During my lessons, I was forgetting to do this because most students raise their hand instantly. Also, as a teacher, waiting even 5 seconds seems like a long time when you’re standing up in front of the class. After reading this article and understanding all of the benefits of wait time, I realized that giving students some time to think after posing a question would allow more students to understand what is being asked. In turn, this would increase student engagement and participation because all students would be given adequate time to think and reflect. Those who may otherwise be reluctant to answer would hopefully feel comfortable responding.

I decided to focus on this important concept during one my lessons. There were a few times when some of the quieter students raised their hand but what really stood out for me was that the quality of student responses was much higher than when I did not give them much think time. Also, calling on hands that quickly shot up would sometimes result in an “I forgot” reply because students were not critically thinking about their responses. Other times, some students would respond with a quick comment that did not require much thinking. However, during this particular lesson, it was evident that students were critically thinking and providing insightful responses.

I am glad that I came across this resource as I likely would not have viewed this strategy as a useful technique for my class. The class enjoys discussions very much and enjoy answering questions so it could have been very easy for me to overlook the importance of think time.