Give answers or have kids find answers (college, high school, algebra)

[Ivorytickler]

I hate to start a new thread for just this but I'd like to get some non biased opinions.


Is this a compliment or criticism?

At parent teacher conferences, I had several parents tell me that their kids like me, as a teacher, because "She can actually answer my questions. Other teachers just tell me to look it up." At first, I was thinking this is a compliment but now I'm wondering if maybe I should be telling them to find the answers on their own...

Personally, I like answering their questions because that, often, leads down some really cool side discussion paths and I think that answering benefits the students who didn't ask the question as well as the one who did but, should I be just handing them answers to their questions or encouraging them to seek answers on their own???

So, compliment or criticism? Continue doing what I do or start telling them to look things up like other teachers, apparentely, do.

[stan4]

I remember something way better if I go look it up myself rather than just have someone tell me.

But maybe that's not what they are talking about. Maybe they mean they feel you are credible because you know your stuff.

[North Beach Person]

When in the process is this happening? At the beginning or after they've sweated it out for a bit?

Your job is to teach which includes giving the kids the tools to solve the problem. If they work on it for awhile and can't get that's when you explain it and show them how to do it (most likely for the 3rd or 4th time). Having a kid work a problem for hours and still not get is counterproductive, the kid will likely give up long before.

With things like Chem, Algebra, Physics many kids need to be walked through the steps, sometimes several times. That was always my pet peeve in high school with Math teachers, they'd do the problem once on the board, maybe, and then have us do 50 problems. If I didn't get it during the one example (which was most of the time) I was lost the rest of the time. As a result at 57 my Math skills have remained weak, I really didn't understand Algebra until my Sophomore year in college when I had an instructor that actually explained things.

In what I teach there's a lot of theory. I let the kids worry over it a bit then break it down for them.

Yes there is value in "learning it yourself" but the reality of today's education (and really it always has been that way, those of us in upper level classes didn't see it because we around the smart kids due to tracking, even in electives like Art and PE) is that many students don't "get it".

[sll3454]

I got the same kind of comments as a math teacher. When kids and parents tell you this, what they are saying is, "I respect you because you are smart and really know your subject and you care about helping me learn it."

When teachers don't answer questions, kids hear two things:
"I don't really know my subject. Don't embarrass me."
"I don't care whether you learn or not."

Also, looking things up is much easier in some subjects than in others. "Who was George Washington Bush?" "Where is Boston?" "How can I identify poison ivy?" Easy to look up. But understanding chemistry concepts by heading to the net? Not so easy.

Another thought: when they ask, they want to know. It's a teaching moment. In a few minutes, it might be forgotten. If you make them look it up, only the most motivated (maybe 0.5%) will actually do it. Why not let the normal kids learn, too?

You're not "telling them answers." You're teaching. But if possible, use their prior knowledge to lead them at least partway to the answer. "Well, you know that ________, right? And what about _______? Well in this case, __________." Make it a little bit interactive. (I know how to do this with math, but chemistry? Hence the blanks instead of a real example. Sorry.)

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by sll3454

I got the same kind of comments as a math teacher. When kids and parents tell you this, what they are saying is, "I respect you because you are smart and really know your subject and you care about helping me learn it."

When teachers don't answer questions, kids hear two things:
"I don't really know my subject. Don't embarrass me."
"I don't care whether you learn or not."

Also, looking things up is much easier in some subjects than in others. "Who was George Washington Bush?" "Where is Boston?" "How can I identify poison ivy?" Easy to look up. But understanding chemistry concepts by heading to the net? Not so easy.

Another thought: when they ask, they want to know. It's a teaching moment. In a few minutes, it might be forgotten. If you make them look it up, only the most motivated (maybe 0.5%) will actually do it. Why not let the normal kids learn, too?

You're not "telling them answers." You're teaching. But if possible, use their prior knowledge to lead them at least partway to the answer. "Well, you know that ________, right? And what about _______? Well in this case, __________." Make it a little bit interactive. (I know how to do this with math, but chemistry? Hence the blanks instead of a real example. Sorry.)

That's how I took it, initially, but then I started wondering why other teachers tell kids to look things up. There have only been a couple of times when I've told a student to look something up and that was when it was just something I didn't know and I told the student that.

I don't hand answers out if we're talking about something I've been teaching. I try to get my students to follow a logical path to the answer. The questions I always answer are the ones that go deeper. I figure that having a student ask in class lends merit to the question and that everyone who heard the question and the answer benefits from hearing both.

Usually, there is some kind of logic trail we follow to get to the answer that involves the students giving me, at least, part of the answer. I hate rote learning so I try to get my students to reason their way to an answer. This year, I have several students who seem to be enjoying this process. Last year, I got a lot of resistance to it but last year was my first year at this school. My teaching methods were more acceptable the second year at the charter school too. I asked a student there about this and she told me "Last year you were the newbie". I guess there's some kind of initiation period where students decide if you're going to make it or not. Once they do, they seem to buy in to what I do.

[lkb0714]

Depends on the question.

I frequently give ten minutes in the beginning of the period for kids who had questions the period before and then were told to look them up to "teach" the class. They love it and sometimes come up with more stuff then I knew.

This just came up last week when we were doing photoelectric effect. The kid found some cool applications for it that I had never heard of. The best one was still a few years ago when we were doing bose einstein condensation. We barely scratch the surface on it but I carved out 30 mins for a kids who was REALLY into it. He is at the princeton plasma lab now but I still think he is hoping to go work in the BEC lab at MIT at some point.

[golfgal]

It really depends....If a child is doing a worksheet and asks for the answers without opening the book to look them up, not a good thing. If they have been laboring over an answer for a while and just don't get it, showing them how to come up with the answer is excellent.

"Teacher, what is the symbol for oxygen" is the question, if you answer O2, not good, if you answer, here is the periodic chart, the gases are in this column...good.

[lhpartridge]

Originally Posted by lkb0714

Depends on the question.

I frequently give ten minutes in the beginning of the period for kids who had questions the period before and then were told to look them up to "teach" the class. They love it and sometimes come up with more stuff then I knew.

This just came up last week when we were doing photoelectric effect. The kid found some cool applications for it that I had never heard of. The best one was still a few years ago when we were doing bose einstein condensation. We barely scratch the surface on it but I carved out 30 mins for a kids who was REALLY into it. He is at the princeton plasma lab now but I still think he is hoping to go work in the BEC lab at MIT at some point.

I like to end my classes with "questions for points" on the topic of the day. Our students rarely ask questions on their own and they are mostly trained to just answer questions. It's a good way to spend those last few minutes, especially when we don't know exactly when the bell will ring (not uncommon at my school). It's also a useful way to get around answering distracting questions in the middle of a lesson. I can just tell them to write it down for later. If they forget, then hopefully they learn the lesson to write things down. It also helps them develop curiosity, which is lacking in many of our students.

[sll3454]

Originally Posted by golfgal

It really depends....If a child is doing a worksheet and asks for the answers without opening the book to look them up, not a good thing. If they have been laboring over an answer for a while and just don't get it, showing them how to come up with the answer is excellent.

I wasn't thinking of this kind of question. I was thinking of a "going deeper" or "related topic" (or maybe even unrelated) or "Why?" question - a question that indicates a desire to learn something, rather than a question designed to get answers to an assignment.

[Ivorytickler]

Originally Posted by golfgal

It really depends....If a child is doing a worksheet and asks for the answers without opening the book to look them up, not a good thing. If they have been laboring over an answer for a while and just don't get it, showing them how to come up with the answer is excellent.

"Teacher, what is the symbol for oxygen" is the question, if you answer O2, not good, if you answer, here is the periodic chart, the gases are in this column...good.

I'm not sure when, because the comments came after the fact, but I don't give worksheet or homework answers. I will direct them to the book or their notes for that or answer their question with a question that gets them pointed in the right direction. I will answer questions during lectures though (I'm pretty sure this is when they're talking about). If they have questions during a lab, that are not safety related, I ask them if they've read their directions.