Originally written by Kaci Bohn, associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Texas Tech University for the Faculty Lounge, a newsletter for educators released by Harvard Business Publishing.
“What color is the sky?”
Your first instinct may be to answer blue. But then you might start thinking – “Do they mean at sunset?” or “What if it’s a cloudy day?” – the uncertainty will likely make you settle for the answer “It depends – what kind of sky?”
Most people do not feel confident answering open-ended questions that may have several correct answers. Students are the same – they don’t want to risk being wrong or looking “stupid” in front of their peers, or risk having their wrong answer negatively impact their grade.
But at the end of the day, removing recitation from a class is not a solution – how else can we gauge our students’ understanding of the lesson in real-time, and encourage discussion within the class? So instead, we must be explicit and intentional in the way we phrase our inquiries. Here’s how to do it.
Start by making students comfortable
To get your students comfortable responding verbally in front of their peers, ask them a very specific and simple question with an obvious correct answer.
Using the example from earlier, “What color is the sky?” I’ll add two details to make the question less vague; I’ll then offer two answer choices, one of them being the obvious answer.
For example: “What color is the sky at 11 a.m. on a cloudless day? Blue or neon green?”
The original question may have been simple, but it wasn’t specific enough. This could discourage some students from responding, so it’s important to add details—11 a.m. and a cloudless day. Then, offer choices—one of them being a clear right answer (blue). If you don’t, your students may not feel confident answering out loud, even if they know the correct answer.
For example: In my pharmacology class, instead of asking, “What do beta blockers do to heart rate?” I will get more responses if I ask, “Do beta blockers increase or decrease heart rate?”
My students might know that “decrease” is the correct answer, but since there are so many ways to say “decrease” (e.g., “lower,” “reduce,” or “make it go down”), they may remain silent, worried they’ll say it differently from their peers. So it’s important to be specific and offer choices.
Tip: If you’d like to use this technique to ask more complex questions that dig a little deeper into a topic, try including the prompts on your slides. This allows students, particularly visual learners, to absorb the question, think, and confidently answer out loud.
If you’re still not getting the right response, rephrase or reteach
If you ask these simple questions and still get little response from students, perhaps the two answer choices were too similar.
For example: “What color is the sky at 11 a.m. on a cloudless day? Blue or light blue?”
When we offer answer choices that are too alike, our students may feel like we’re trying to trick them. So make sure one of the options is clearly the correct choice and the other is not. Then, if I keep getting wrong answers, I’ll know that my students aren’t grasping the material and it’s time to go back and review—or even reteach it.
For example: If they are in the middle of a chemical experiment in class, I’ll say, “Wait a minute, I want to ask a question. Did the color of your solution just change to blue or to pink?”
They should say, “Blue.” But if several say, “Pink,” I know we’ve got a problem and we can’t move on until we figure out what went wrong.
Use this technique repeatedly throughout class
While there are other reasons to ask questions during class—like fostering conversation and promoting Socratic learning—the technique I’m sharing here allows you to quickly check in with your students. If you wait until the end of class to ask, “Any questions?” not only will you get little response, but you’ll also lose the opportunity to assess students’ learning in real time and in an intentional and specific way.
So plan to ask specific questions with clear answer choices frequently throughout your classes—and listen to your students’ responses. You may be pleasantly surprised by how many absorbed what you are teaching.
Try changing the medium.
Some students may just be shy, or take a longer time processing the question and coming up with an answer. Many professors have discovered that sometimes chat is the best way to elicit responses from students. If you’re holding an online class, encourage students to chime in via the chat box. For onsite classes, you might consider polling tools like Mentimeter to check in with your students at regular intervals as you teach in class.
Alternatively, you can also utilize check-ins regularly throughout the semester to regularly “check-in” on your students’ understanding of the lessons. You can be direct, asking questions about the topics that you discussed; or you can also try asking them simply what topics they had difficulty grasping. Though this method is no longer “live,” it offers students a chance to take a pause and reflect on their level of understanding of the lesson, which can be difficult to do in the rush of a recitation session or after a long lecture.
