Increasing Wait Time in Blended Learning Lessons

When questioning students, one easy way to increase student learning and promote higher order thinking is to increase wait time.  Studies repeatedly show the benefits of increasing wait time when asking students to do something as simple as recite sight words or as complex as evaluate the scientific processes used in an experiment.

Often after teachers ask questions, students are only given one second or less to formulate an answer before the answer is supplied--either by a student or the teacher.  The results of this questioning are low levels of thinking and engagement throughout the classroom.  However, when the teacher allows two to seven seconds--depending on the complexity of the question--before eliciting student answers, student thinking and engagement increase markedly:

1. More students answer or are prepared to answer the question
2. Students provide longer more thoughtful answers
3. Students ask more questions and more higher-order questions
4. Students provide more unsolicited responses
5. Student interaction increases
6. Students who process more slowly are more likely to respond

Many teachers have already seen the positive results in increasing classroom wait time when leading a class or a small group.  However, teachers may not have considered the importance of allowing for wait time in blended learning lessons, as well.  I have implemented multiple methods to accomplish wait time in my blended learning lessons, and I vary them depending on the type and purpose of the lesson.  

The first, and most disconcerting method I use mirrors the instructional wait time I use in the classroom.  That is, in the middle of a recorded lesson, I pose a question to the students.  Then comes the disturbing part:  I wait.  Three seconds.  Dead air.  That is really tough, especially when listening to the playback.  Nobody likes to hear dead air.  The glorious part, though, comes when I hear the students responding during the lesson.  No teacher is standing in front of them to smile or offer encouragement, yet they all respond.  Seeing this in action reinforces to me that I need to remember to add clarifying thoughts and specific praise to my recorded lessons as well.  I try to anticipate or take note of specific errors in student thinking that I notice while students are working with me and include specific teaching in my recorded lessons.  Vice versa, I take note of what I overhear when students are working with recorded lessons and incorporate needed teaching or re-teaching into my classroom lessons.  

Think (wait...time...)

Speak

Another method I use during timed PowerPoint presentations is the use of icons at the bottom of the page. For example, if there is a sight word the students are to recite, or a question is posed about a shape or a character in a book, I will use a thinking icon to prompt students to think silently--this takes some teaching.  Then, when the time is up, the slide will automatically change, and a speaking icon or a "hands up" icon will present itself where the thinking icon used to be.  I often change the color of the slide as another indicator that the students are now free to answer.  

The pause button is the final method I have used for allowing students increased wait time.  For example, I may ask the students, in the middle of a recorded guided-reading lesson on a book about fruits and vegetables, to hit pause and draw a picture of their favorite fruit.  However, the ultimate in using the pause button to improve learning is when a student recognizes his own need for wait time and pauses the lesson in order to improve his own thinking and learning.  I believe that it is when we teach students to do this, and they internalize the control they have over their own learning, that the true power of blended learning is harnessed.

Journal of Teacher Education Wait time: Slowing down may be a way of speeding up http://bit.ly/1cmdZXP 

Wait Time http://bit.ly/19csoBj