In today’s class (Oct.9th, 2013), we briefly discussed about the ideal length of waiting time after asking questions to students, and opinions were voiced which ranged from “1 second” and “less than 30 seconds”, etc. After I heard some responses, I recalled my experiences from first and second school visits. I observed that, when they asked some questions, few students who are considered to be the smart ones in the class answered the questions right away. It seemed that students who were less prepared, but perfectly capable of answering the questions if given some time, did not get a chance to answer the questions at all. Immediately after hearing an answer from those select few, teachers would resume their lecture. On my own take as a student teacher without much teaching experience, I find that I often don’t know how much time I need to give to the student before answering the question myself. For me, it was very awkward standing in front of students, since I had no idea whether they were too shy to answer the question or actually didn’t know how to answer the question. So I answered the question myself right away which is probably not an ideal approach. Ironically, as a student, I would often find that before I could answer a teacher’s question, I would need more time than 1 second or 30 seconds because I needed to think exactly what I was asked and why I thought a particular answer was correct. Taking into consideration the accounts of both sides, I think teachers should give more time to students to promote their critical thinking and quality of their answers. However, It wouldn’t be easy to know whether the majority of class is ready to answer a question or not. Therefore, I think before we go on, it is better to ask students to write down some sentences about their thoughts. Then few smart students won’t dominate the class, and most students can have some time to think, and if they write things down they would have an easier time formulating their ideas and also they would be more likely to be engaged.
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