#54 Ask students not to say or write anything for 30 seconds
This pause for thought can stop students saying they are stuck
Hello, and welcome to the Tips for Teachers newsletter.
I have 7 free websites
I write 2 free weekly newsletters
I host 2 free podcasts
I share over 200 free CPD videos
If you find my work useful, please consider becoming a Patreon
💡 A tip to try in class this week 💡
Recently I wrote about the work I have been doing with a maths department to develop a consistent approach to implementing problem-solving in their lessons. Here, I want to focus on a small, but potentially significant, part of that approach.
Imagine you give your students a problem like this to solve:
I will bet any money in the world that approximately 2 seconds after the problem becomes visible, hands go up, and the chorus of “I don’t get it” begins.
This is an issue. One of the greatest challenges of problem-solving is knowing how to start, and developing the reliance needed to tough it out when the route is not immediately obvious is crucial.
A potential solution is asking students not to say or write anything for 30 seconds. Instead, they are to think about the problem.
We might ask students not to say anything because it prevents the reflex response of “I don’t get it” whenever students are faced with anything unfamiliar.
The reason to ask students not to write anything is a little more subtle. It prevents them from diving in head first without properly reading the question. It allows them to plot a route through the problem. In the language of psychologist Daniel Kahneman, those 30 seconds give our students’ more thoughtful System 2s a chance to override their more instinctual, but often faulty, System 1s.
When you first introduce this approach, you are likely to be met by resistance. Those 30 seconds will feel like 3 hours, and students will be desperate to ask you questions or to write something down. As is often the case with a new technique, explaining to students the rationale for what we are doing will solve many of these problems. And when students start to notice the benefit of those 30 seconds of calm contemplation, especially in exams, most should jump on board.
What do you think of this idea?
What would you need to change to make this tip work for you?
When could you try it for the first time?
View more than 200 Tips for Teachers
🏃🏻♂️Before you go, have you… 🏃🏻♂️
… tried last week’s tip about asking students to put their mini-whiteboards together?
… read my latest Eedi newsletter about 10 tips to supercharge the use of Venn Diagrams?
… listened to my latest podcast about feedback cycles, lesson observations and Exit Tickets?
… read my Tips for Teachers book?
… considered booking some CPD, coaching or maths department support?
Where do you learn? Not in a classroom .... between your ears!
Thinking is pivotal and SO underunderstood (if that's not a word - it should be!)