Seminarium

The Elements of Great Teaching

Posing Questions—Part III: Nourishing Great Questions

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The following excerpts of David’s upcoming book, Teaching to Learn, Learning to Teach: Reflections on Education as Transformation through Dialogue (Summer, 2014), are used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers.

How can we create a hospitable atmosphere in which question-asking is an integral and valued part of the classroom experience for students and teachers alike?  

Maybe we need to be absolutely clear that we actually, really, honestly do want questions! To try and generate an atmosphere hospitable for questions, I have sometimes said, “You may have had a bad experience in the past asking questions in class. But I want you to know I welcome them. I know you may feel they expose what you do not know. But that is the whole point of learning. I hope we can work together in the learning process for you to clarify to me what I need to explain or explore better. I am depending on that. I am counting on you to ask for clarification and to explore what you are learning. Questions will enable me to teach better and you to learn better.”  

Then we need to act in such a way as to foster and maintain that atmosphere. So how can we create an atmosphere of curiosity and at the same time teach question-asking skills? How can we get students to care enough about the subject matter or curious enough about it to want to ask questions?  

Here are a few strategies I have learned the hard way as I have struggled to avoid things that hinder questions and tried to do things that foster questions. 

1. Do not belittle the question or the person asking it.  

This seems pretty obvious. First, if someone asks a question, I can in no way put down the question. I have to honor the question, no matter what it is. Besides, it represents where the student is at—and it is critical to respect, and this is where teaching/learning begins.  

If I give any indication that I think the question is stupid or inappropriate, then not just this student but the whole class is doomed. If I indicate or imply that a question is dumb, then I am suggesting the student is not too smart or should have understood or was not listening. I was aware of this when I first started teaching, but I felt as a teacher that I had to correct students at every point. So I would try to be subtle and rephrase the question or suggest that a different question would be more appropriate. Then, several times when this approach resulted in a non-responsive class, I found myself apologizing. And it would not work to apologize privately to the student that I had “put down their question.” I needed to apologize before the whole class, because it was a public “put down” I had done and because the whole class had been affected by it.  

What I did not realize at first was the impact my words had on other students who did not ask the question. By putting a student down, I may think I have encouraged other students to ask smart questions. No. All I have done is to lead every other student to say to themselves: “If you think I’m going to ask a question like he did and risk looking like an ass in front of the teacher and my classmates, you’re nuts. And even if I did ask a question and the teacher praised it, I would still look like an ass to my classmates. I’m not saying anything.”  

We only need to make one mistake, one time we get frustrated or blow up or act indignant at a question, and it can poison the atmosphere for that class and that semester. It helps to remember that if a student asks a question, there is a ninety-percent likelihood that other students have the same question—however obvious or simple it is. So if that is the case, then more than one student is feeling stupid and humiliated.            

2. Honor the question and give a good answer.  

If the question is repetitious or rather inane, it may be best to give a serious straightforward answer and move on, without letting our chagrin be apparent. But most of the time, I can give an interesting or informative answer for the whole class, no matter what the question. In so answering, I may have to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, but so be it.  

The point is this: If I give an informed answer, I make the student who asked the question look good. I may even say, “Good question” or “I’m glad you asked that question.” Or “I’ll bet others are wondering the same thing” or “That obviously needs to be clarified” or “That’s complicated, and I’m glad you gave me the chance to repeat it.” When it is an especially good question, I may say, “I never thought of that before” or “That’s a challenging question, let me think now.” No need to make it seem as if I am compensating for a poor question. I just need to provide a helpful answer that makes it worthwhile for the whole class that someone asked it.  

3. Do not give long answers.  

One of the worst things a teacher can do is to give long answers. I will usually introduce the time after a brief lecture as time for class “discussion.” Then one student asks a question and I launch into a five or ten-minute answer. In effect, I give another lecture! The students have already been listening passively to the first lecture and now they get another. By this time, they are saying to themselves, “Is this discussion time or another lecture? If he’s going to take that long to answer one question, I’m not going to ask another one. I’m bored” So, I just answer the question as succinctly as possible and move on. That way, I give others a chance to come forward with their questions.

4. Do not wait until the end of class to ask for questions.  

Another related thing not to do is this. Don’t wait until near the end of the class to invite questions. This is a no-brainer. If you wait to the end of the class to invite questions, everyone is thinking, “If nobody asks a question, maybe we’ll get out early!” or “If someone asks a question, he’ll probably end up going beyond the end of the class time.”  

5. Do not be impatient with silence.  

We usually cut off questions when we become impatient with silence. We give a lecture and ask for questions. When no one speaks up in the first eight or ten seconds, we either assume people get it and we move on to the next subject. Or we start asking our own questions and answering them. Or we just repeat what we have said and ask if they are sure they do not have any questions. Unless we are ready to give the students some time to think so as to formulate their questions, many of them will not be prepared. Unless we have the patience to wait, even if there will be a long awkward silence, the questions might not be forthcoming.  

6. Do not be defensive.  

If a student asks a provocative question that challenges your lecture or your point of view, do not try to defend yourself. It is the quickest way to stifle such challenges. Rather, rephrase the question so that you are sure you understand it. Ask if others are wondering in a similar way. Ask the student to unpack their point of view more fully. Maybe just say that you really need to think about that. Or suggest an answer in a way that leads to further conversation. You may want to affirm the question as expressive of another legitimate point of view, and then elaborate further support the student might have for that point of view. You can also matter-of-factly answer the question in a non-defensive way and ask if that addresses their concern. Or you could always rethink and change your point of view!  

The main idea is to be comfortable and stimulated with being challenged. Maybe best of all, we might say: “I don’t know what I think about that. What do you [the class] think?” Or, “That’s a great question; let me think this through aloud with you.” Or simply, “I don’t know.” In these ways, we leave the conversation open and don’t shut it down.

 7. Be careful about challenging the student in return.

 Finally, be cautious about asking a student a question back. This may be another thing that puts the student on the spot. Even a question back that asks the student to clarify their question or explain why they asked it can be intimidating. Maybe we could repeat the question in other words and then ask the student if you understood the question right. But even this has to be done carefully.  

Again, even if you are dealing with a student who can handle the challenge well, you cannot forget the fact that every other student is watching—and thinking, “If he is going to challenge back, I think I’ll just keep my mouth shut.” They have already exposed their ignorance. Why exacerbate their situation? The goal is to create a safe and respectful atmosphere where I am able to challenge students, and they are in no way intimidated by it.

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David Rhoads is Emeritus Professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (1988 to 2010), previously professor of religion at Carthage College, Kenosha, WI (1973 to 1988). He has published Mark as Story (co-author, third edition, 2012), The Challenge of Diversity (2004), Reading Mark, Engaging the Gospel (2005), From Every People and Nation: The Book of Revelation in Intercultural Perspective (editor, 2005), and “Performance Criticism: An Emerging Discipline in Second Testament Studies” (BTB, 2006). He edits the Biblical Performance Criticism series for Wipf and Stock Press. He edited Earth and Word: Classic Sermons on Saving the Planet (2008), co-edited The Season of Creation (2011), and directs Lutherans Restoring Creation. Rhoads was Carthage Teacher of the Year in 1974-75. In 2004, he received the first Fortress Press Award for outstanding teaching in a graduate/seminary institution. Rhoads lives in Racine, WI with his wife the Rev. Sandra Roberts.

Comments

  1. Thanks for this post, David. I find myself wrestling with your numbers 1 and 7, because the remaining points deal with _answering_ questions, while (as you describe well in your first post in this series), we very often are in the business of asking students to _reexamine and reshape_ their own questions and try to create more generative questions.

    So, for example, a question might involve a category error (“But prof, how can Hosea mean what you say in this text, since I don’t believe God is like that?”), or may be wrong in its facts (“Since all Christians believe X, why should we read the Bible with the method[s] presupposed in this course?”), or force premature closure (“Is this biblical text true? Yes or no?”), or involve some other logical fallacy that needs attention. My challenge, then, is to engage the students _about the question asked_, including asking them questions (rather than me just “straightening them out” with assertions of my own), and to be clear that this activity IS “honoring the question” and not belittling it. Does this struggle ring true with your experience also?

    • (This reply posted on behalf of the blog post author, David Rhoads:)

      Hi Brooke;
      Thanks for your response to my post about question-asking. I completely agree that the issue of questions is more complicated than I have portrayed it. You have given some excellent examples to illustrate that.
      Let me continue the conversation over two issues you raised: “correcting” student questions and asking questions of students.

      Regarding the first issue, my main concern here is to respond in a way that does not discourage questions. I agree wholeheartedly that we do not want to “straighten the student out” with assertions of our own. However, correcting a question may itself come across that way. So my initial response to the first question you posed about Hosea might not be to directly “correct” the question. I might do one of several things: 1) I might let it go and address it later as two issues; 2) I might ask back for clarity (“Would I be right in thinking you have two questions there? Am I interpreting Hosea’s correctly? And is Hosea’s view of God truthful?) Then leave responses open as we gather more questions. 3) Identify it as a challenging question and invite what other students think about it. Seek to sort it out in the conversation. The response may depend on where we are in the conversation and how much the student asking the question generally speaks up in class. It’s a judgment call. Part two of that question may deserve a much longer conversation and at that point may be a distraction to be dealt with later as a main topic.

      As for the next two questions that deal with foundational issues, I think I might identify them as foundational questions that merit a longer conversation and ask permission from the students to set aside some time later in class or the next class to address it. I would be sure to give students time to think about the question and then engage in an open conversation with them—so that many students get to share what they think also. I might begin by stating my own view or (more likely) end with a statement of my own view.

      These are questions that go to the heart of the approach in an entire course and need to be addressed. Despite the fact that some students may have different points of view than I do, nevertheless, as a teacher, I need to explain why one approach is being taken in this class and not another—and how students who objected might deal with that. If there is ongoing resistance to the approach, it would be worth setting times aside throughout the course to discuss the issue. At the same time, a simple response may be all that is needed for that student, depending on how much the student has invested in the issue. In either case, I agree that I would not want to have a tone of “straightening out” the student but of clarifying what the approach is in this context—course/ seminary/ academy—without disparaging an alternative approach that a student would prefer.

      As for what I take to be a second issue, namely, asking questions of the students, I heartily agree that once we get beyond initial measures of securing a safe atmosphere, we should really open the conversation so that between teacher and students and between students and students we can together explore and challenge each other’s views. Elsewhere I have noted some protocols for such conversations. I would want to be free to explore what the students think on various matters and to be free to challenge their perspectives all the while opening up the conversation without shutting down the process for any students. I have tended to make it clear to students when that shift happened and what it involved, even asking their permission to do it and giving them the freedom to “pass” if they were not ready to explore deeper. Students do need to learn to think critically and to think on their feet. It’s just that we all need to be on the same page when we do it and not give students the sense of being ambushed. It is very important to get to the point where such conversations can happen.

      I doubt you would disagree with much of what I have said. And I assume you may have some other ways to achieve it. Thanks for the opportunity to advance my own thinking on this issue. I look forward to any further reflections you have on this issue and any other issues that may arise from my entries.

      Thanks, Brooke. This is my first blog response ever. So I have to figure out how to do this. I may have violated my own rule about questions, namely, not to give long answers!