Silence As A Pedagogical Tool Part 2

Our discomfort with silence is persistent. The last discussion highlighted the origin of that fear. Most relevant to our discussion is the unrelenting stimulation that we experience on a daily basis. Overwhelmed with constant input, our brain is playing catch up with a hyperactive environment.

Our students fear silence because they rarely experience it.

Rather than trying to beat the beast, let us tame it and use it to our advantage. We can use silence in the classroom to improve our teaching.

This article outlines two powerful implications brought about by appropriately using silence.

1. Cognitive Rest

Silence is a break from incoming auditory stimuli. Without incoming auditory information, your brain can pause and take a break. Just like a muscle, it needs to rest after being used.

Picture a lecture hall filled to the brim with undergrads. A veteran professor inundates the poor freshman with every ounce content they can muster for 60 minutes.

The students feel overwhelmed and trickle out shell shocked retaining little.

Sprinkle in a few mental breaks throughout the lecture and the results might be different:

In the midst of all the new information they were receiving and assimilating, these substantial, expected pauses allowed the students a mental, physical space to breathe. It also handed complete control to them for a few minutes – this was their time and they could choose how to use it, as long as the agreement to be silent was respected.

Frequently lecturing any level of student for a period of extended time is wrong, though direct instruction is sometimes necessary.

We understand that most students have a miniscule attention span lasting 7-11 minutes. Try incorporating small, 60 second break if the duration of your direct instruction exceeds the 7-11 minute mark.

Structure the pause into your lesson and communicate your expectation during the silence. The students can sit quietly with their eyes closed, reread their notes, doodle etc.

Make it clear that they are not to interact with their neighbors and that the silence is finite. Upon reaching the 60 second limit, the lesson will restart.

As you lift weights, you pause between sets to rest your muscle. As you exercise the brain by teaching content, a brief pause gives the brain a necessary rest.

2. Body language

“You may have heard the statistic that 93 percent of communication is nonverbal.”

How you say something, or don’t say something is your body’s way of talking.

As a case study for the power of silence, we’ll look at John D. Rockefeller.

John D. Rockefeller, arguably the most successful businessman in written history, used silence to his advantage. From Chernow’s masterful biography of John Rockefeller, an associate describes his lengthy pauses:

“His (Rockefeller’s) long silences, so that we could not locate even his objections, were sometimes baffling.”

Rockefeller prided himself on being thoughtful and quite, he equated it with strength. Further, he often used silences to make his adversaries uncomfortable and to demonstrate that he was unwilling to budge.

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