The document discusses the importance of wait time when teachers ask questions in class. Research shows that the average wait time teachers allow after asking a question is only one second or less. Increasing wait time to three seconds or more has benefits - it improves student achievement and retention, increases higher-level thinking responses, and decreases interruptions and failures to respond. The type of question also matters - lower cognitive questions benefit from three seconds of wait time, while longer wait times foster greater engagement for higher cognitive questions. The document provides strategies for teachers to incorporate appropriate wait times and question types into their classroom practices.

1. Questioning

2. If you change one thing this week
– increase the amount of wait
time you allow when questioning
your class

3. Why is this important?
• Wait-time 1 –
amount of time
teacher allows to
elapse before a
student begins to
speak after asking
a question
• Wait-time 2 –
amount of time a
teacher waits after
a student has
stopped speaking
before saying
anything

4. Research has shown:

5. The average wait-time allowed by
teachers after posing a question is
one second or less.
Research shows:

6. Students whom teachers perceive as
slow or poor learners are given less
wait-time than those teachers view as
more capable.
Research shows:

7. Oral questions are more effective in
fostering learning than written
questions
Research shows:

8. Lower vs Higher cognitive questions
• Lower cognitive questions
– students asked to recall
material previously learnt.
(Sometimes referred to as
factual, closed, direct,
recall, knowledge
questions)
• Higher cognitive questions –
students asked to mentally
manipulate bits of
information previously
learned to create an answer
or to support an answer
with logically reasoned
evidence. (Sometimes called
open-
ended, interpretive, evaluati
ve, inquiry, inferential, and
synthesis questions.)

10. So… higher or lower cognitive?
• It depends on the students you have
• It depends on what you are teaching
• Both are needed – the skill is knowing which
to use and when
• Plan questions in advance using Bloom’s
Taxonomy

11. Wait time:
• Lower cognitive
questions – 3 second
wait time is most
positively related to
achievement (less
success from shorter or
longer periods)
• Higher cognitive
questions – longer the
wait time the more
students are engaged
and the better they
perform

12. Increasing wait time has the following
student outcomes:

13. Improvements in:
• Student achievement
• Student retention of information

14. Increases in:
• Number of higher cognitive responses
• Length of student responses
• Contributions by those students who don’t
usually contribute
• Number of questions asked by students
• Student to student interactions

15. Decreases in:
• Student interruptions
• Student failure to respond

16. Increasing wait time beyond 3 seconds
has the following teacher outcomes:
• Teachers listen more and engage in more
discussions
• Increases in teacher expectations of those
usually thought of as lower ability
• Expansion of the variety of questions asked by
teachers
• Increases in the number of higher cognitive
questions asked by teachers

17. Strategies to use:
• Use a 3 second wait time when using lower
cognitive questions
• Increase wait time beyond 3 seconds for
higher cognitive questions
• Combine with other strategies (e.g. no hands;
pose, pause, pounce and bounce)
• Know your students – and plan a suitable
range of lower and higher cognitive questions

18. • Will you have a ‘three second’ rule that you
share with the class?
• Or will you build the three second rule into
your own method of questioning?