Class gets dead silent when I ask a question
Students sometimes completely refuse to participate, offering only blank stares and dead silence even for simple yes-or-no confirmations. This paralyzing awkwardness ruins activities like think-pair-shares and forces teachers to either endure minutes of agonizing eye contact or just give up and move on.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Class gets dead silent when I ask a question
- 1Coming back to the student later or providing support and promptingDid this help you?
- 2Saying the student's name before asking the question or repeating itDid this help you?
- 3Rephrasing the question or breaking it down into smaller piecesDid this help you?
- 4Sitting in the awkward silence and staring at them to get them used to itDid this help you?
- 5Dumbing the question down progressively until getting a response like yes or noDid this help you?
- 6Moving on to another student or activity if it is defianceDid this help you?
- 7Using think-pair-share or having students write answers down on paper or digitally firstDid this help you?
- 8Using a randomizer (popsicle sticks, virtual wheels) to cold-call students.Did this help you?
- 9Using the 'think-pair-share' method to let students discuss with a neighbor before sharing with the class.Did this help you?
- 10Replacing verbal class discussions with written, graded quizzes.Did this help you?
- 11Having students write their answers on mini whiteboards or digital share boards (like Padlet) instead of speaking.Did this help you?
- 12Starting the class with a low-stakes icebreaker question instead of standard attendance.Did this help you?
- 13Switching from 'ask' to 'task' by having students write down their thoughts before being called upon.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I have a class that absolutely refuses to participate. They get eerily silent every time I ask a question.”source ↗
“Even when I carefully explain why this evidence connects to the main idea and ask a yes or no question as confirmation I get blank stares or people trying to avoid eye contact.”source ↗
“I have a class like this and they also refuse to think-pair-share or answer a cold call. They won’t talk to each other or to me, just stare blankly, making horror-movie eye contact with me no matter how long I wait”source ↗
“When mine say "I don't know" or "I din't find it" my response is "okay, let's take a look."”source ↗
“I have had so many sections like this (high school biology).”source ↗
“They signed up to learn a foreign language then refuse to speak. I’d rather have a class bouncing off the walls than dead silence.”source ↗
“Some students will genuinely just stare for 2 minutes and even my loud classes get so silent that it’s painful for me to not move on.”source ↗
“How comfortable would you be sitting silently, completely lost, while everyone around you - some of whom know the answer, some of whom don't - sits silently as well, waiting for the teacher to collect 1/24 points of data?”source ↗
“With waiting on raised hands, if it's that long something is almost always wrong with my delivery.”source ↗
Where this came up
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