Wait Time: Questions and Thinking
Time For Students

Yes, more wait time equals more thinking time. 

Therefore, the more wait time a teacher allows the more time students have to think about an appropriate response. 

Wait time can really be thought of as ‘thinking time’, and by only allowing such short periods of time for students to think and respond the teachers in this study were denying students time to think and generate new learning opportunities.

When Rowe asked teachers to increase their wait time to 3 seconds, she was able to demonstrate positive enhancements in both student and teacher behaviour and attitudes.

It was proposed that the additional wait time not only allowed more time to think but also provided students with a chance to take risks.

Although Rowe’s study was conducted in the 1970s, multiple observational studies have been conducted since and all have reported broadly similar results.

It is therefore worrying that teachers are still typically exhibiting the same low wait times from the 1970s until the present day. 

For example, Brooks and Brooks (2001) found that short wait time did not provide teachers with accurate information about their students’ knowledge and understanding and Cohen et al. (2004) recommend wait times of 3-5 seconds for closed questions and up to 15 seconds for open questions.

These findings suggest that teachers need to slow down the pace of their lessons when asking questions and allow students more time to think and take risks.

Short wait times may be a result of a fear of ‘losing the class’ if silence creeps in, or the common direction given the teachers that their lessons should progress at a suitable pace and students need to be active and engaged at all times.

The silence that occurs when students are allowed time to think is fine and students will be engaged.

Teachers and students should not be fearful of short period of silence and should place more value of thinking time for students when asking questions.