ABSTRACT
Purpose Studies done years ago by Mary Budd Rowe (1987) showed conclusively that the “wait time,” that is, the time between a question asked by the teacher and the first student response, is typically about 1.5 seconds. Her research showed that teachers
unwittingly reward impulsivity rather than reflection. She demonstrated that when teachers extend wait time following a question to even three seconds, students give more thoughtful responses. No teacher would tell you that he or she is trying to get students to answer as quickly as possible without really thinking about their answers. But the evidence shows that this is indeed the case.
