ABSTRACT
Silence is perfectly normal in the classroom. Your initial reaction to silence should be “Wait.” Unlike conversation, where silence is a violation of norms, silence in the classroom should best be interpreted as a pause. Waiting gives students time to think. The higher the level of the class, the longer you should wait. In graduate teaching this can be as long as several minutes! If you’ve waited an appropriate amount of time, acknowledge that it’s a difficult question and takes time to think about. This acknowledges that you are not going to let them off the hook and are waiting for an answer. Wait a bit longer. Then rephrase the question. When you finally get a response, resist the temptation to go to another question. They just did all this work, and you only paid attention to the first speaker. Encourage others to speak as well. Avoid the temptation to respond to every student’s contribution. If no student chimes in immediately after someone speaks, ask for response. If there is still no response, say something that connects the student’s contribution to a previous comment and the student who made it. Ask that student if he or she agrees with the connection. Use your comments to facilitate them talking to each other. If no one responds to the rephrased question, turn the moment into an assessment and have them write out responses anonymously. Or, have them discover a response working in groups of two or three. When you commit to a question, respect the question. Stay with it. If you do
this early and often, you establish a pattern in the class that keeps them comfortable with the pauses.
