Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Teachers who ask questions

It is considered a good teaching practice to ask the students questions, but that doesn't mean all questions are good. You have to ask the right kind of questions and respond to them in the right way. Just the fact that you ask questions doesn't automatically mean you are being a good teacher.

I had a professor who asked the class questions, but I felt so insulted by the questions that I did not want to answer them. She was not interested in listening to what anyone had to say. She had a particular answer in mind. If the first person she asked gave a different answer, she would just move on and ask someone else. Then when she got to someone who gave the answer she wanted (or when she gave up asking) she would go on with the lecture exactly as she had planned it. There was not interaction, no response on her part to what students were thinking. Her questions did not enhance my learning, they just made me feel condescended to.

I had another professor who asked good questions. He asked questions that made me think. He would ask a question about something I had never thought about before, and his question would fill my head with ideas about the topic. That's the kind of questions teachers should ask.