By Michael Hunter Schwartz from Washburn University School of Law
Before class, you carefully crafted your question, thinking through all of the possible responses so that you can maximize student learning. Now, you’re in class. You unleash the question, and . . . silence. You can hear the crickets chirping. No one raises her hand to take the wonderful bait you crafted. Now what?! Should you verbally rewrite your question? Should you step in and answer the question yourself?
Wait. If you modify your question, your students might now feel they have two questions to answer and may be even more confused. Trust your students. The longer you wait, the more they will be able to think through the analysis. And, after all, few lawyers regularly tackle challenging problems in ten or fifteen seconds. If you just wait, a student will step in and fill the silence.
But, what if there’s still no response and now it has been a minute? Let your students discuss the question with their peers for a minute or two and then try your question again. Listen to their discussions; you may learn that your question was confusing in some way you didn’t anticipate. We suspect you will, instead, hear lots of students engaging in analysis.
Good teachers know they do not need to be talking for their students to be learning. Your students’ extra thinking and discussing time will produce more widespread learning than either a verbal re-write or a professor answer.