IF YOU WANT TO:
Asking questions of the class during lecture.
Several professors routinely intersperse questions into their lectures. As he prepares his lecture notes, for example, an engineering professor identifies key places where he can stop and ask the class a leading question. In describing a particular process, he might pause to ask, "Now who can tell me what happens next?" and then call on a specific student or wait until someone responds.
"It's important to ask questions of students as you are lecturing," he explains. "First, it makes students active learners so that they must think about the material, rather than just passively absorb it. Second, it helps me to know if they are understanding what I am saying."
As a variation on this technique, he poses a problem and has students try to answer it in writing. He circulates while they are working, observing their problem solving approaches and identifying their difficulties. After two or three minutes, he calls for solutions and leads a discussion on how students approached the problem.
Limitations on Use of Suggestion
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