Slow and steady wins the race

Asking questions is crucial in effective teaching.

In the past two weeks of the class presentations for the second part of the Part A Effective Teaching assignment, I have noticed us aspiring teachers immediately take the response from the first person (in this case our peers who we are presenting to) to stick their hand up. Most of the time said peers just shout out the answer – bypassing the courtesy of raising their hands.

However, it is such a different situation in my Year 5 class. My teacher has 20 years of experience and when he engages the class in questions his approach is much, much more relaxed. The first thing I notice is he doesn’t immediately take the first hand that shoots up. He waits. Then he picks out a student. It is something which Barry & King make reference to in the chapter ‘Developing instructional skills’ in their book Beginning Teaching and Beyond. For them, the pause is an important strategy and it is remarkable how well it works in controlling the class in my school. When they know the teacher is not going to rush, they quietly, though eagerly, sit in their chairs hoping he selects them. And when their response is wrong, the teacher nicely builds on, or as Barry & King term it, ‘develop’ the answer with things like ‘oh you’re warm’ or ‘yes, that could be true but it is not exactly what I am after’ and then moving on to the next student/s to come to the answer he is after. Before long we have an answer.

When it comes to questioning, so far I am getting the impression that slow and steady wins the race.