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What happens if a student asks a question that you don’t know the answer to?

According to Wilbert McKeachie in McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers, you can use this as an opportunity to model how a professional in your field approaches a problem. You might:

think out loud to model your thought process
identify the resource(s) you would consult to find the answer
inform the student that you will get back to them with an answer and be sure to do so

Additional Resources / Ideas

Listen to Eric Schwabe as he describes such a moment in his classroom; see the “Challenges – Not All Answers” clip at http://teachingcommons.depaul.edu/Videos/oral_histories/schwabe.html
On Answering and Asking Questions – see especially Section II: http://www2.honolulu.hawaii.edu/facdev/guidebk/teachtip/askquest.htm

Tags: professional development, questions

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