Practice Tips from Faculty

Contributed by Steven Markoff, Instructional Specialist, Department of Accounting, Law, and Taxation

A Teaching Resolution

I always have a goal to become a 5% better teacher every semester.  The time in between semesters is a great time to set some teaching goals for the upcoming session.  So I’d like to suggest one which will have the power to make your teaching more effective and more enjoyable.

More and more, we are being asked to develop critical thinking skills in our students, and that means switching from the old role of conveying information. To this end, almost all classes could do with a lot less professor talking, and a lot more professor listening.  Of course, in order to listen, there must be something to listen TO, hence, the need to ask questions. Are you asking enough questions?  If not, that’s a real good goal for the new semester. As James Thurber, the celebrated journalist once said, “it is better to ask some questions than to know all the answers.”

So, if you want to set a goal to ask more questions, and become a better questioner, here are some things that, over the years, have worked for me and others:

1. Ask tons of questions – the more the merrier.  Remember, unless you ask questions, you have nothing to listen to – and then all you can do is talk!

2. Use questions that teach, and not merely assess – Albert Einstein once said “most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing.”  Questions should be teaching tools, not merely assessment tools.

3. Ask students what they think of others’ answers – I am always going around the room doing this. “Ms. Wayne, what did you think of what Ms. Lazzara said?” or “Ms. Lazzara just said such and such.  What was she assuming when she said that?”  This helps develop their ability to listen, and also to think critically about what others are saying.  An added bonus – it keeps them awake in class, as they always know that you might spin around to them next and ask them to comment in this fashion.

4. Embrace wrong answers – that’s part learning. If you are constantly getting correct answers, then you are probably not asking good probing, challenging questions.  Try not to focus on whether or not an answer is correct or incorrect, otherwise, only people who know they have the ‘right’ answer will want to contribute.  Let the students know that incorrect answers are okay as well.  I often will call on a student that I know will give an incorrect answer, not to humiliate them, but rather, to promote further discussion of the question and to step through the thinking process from the ground up.

5. Ask tough questions – I’ll be frank – I love asking questions, but asking questions when you know that the students know, is a complete waste of time.  If all you do is ask questions that they know, then quite honestly – they don’t need you.  Your job is to expand their abilities and challenge them.  To do that, you must ask tough questions, and help them to get from where they are now, to the answer.

6. Test the way you teach – students learn according to how they are tested, and they figure that out pretty quick.  You can ask them to stretch and think critically all day long in class, but if you do not test that way, they simply will not learn it.  If all you are going to do on your exam is ask them to memorize and regurgitate, then forget #’s 1 – 5 above as none of it will matter.

Make a New Year’s resolution to ask more and better questions in class and you will see your students learning more right in front of your eyes, and you will learn and grow as a teacher as well.  Plus, it makes teaching a heck of a lot more fun, interesting and challenging.

Resources:

How to use the Socratic method in the classroom. Retrieved from http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/socratic/fourth.html

Lam, F. (2011).  The Socratic method as an approach to learning and its benefits. Dietrich College Honors Theses. Paper 134. http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1126&context=hsshonors

Lemov, D. (2010). Teach Like a Champion. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.