Susan Gehn

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Susan Gehn, a first-grade teacher in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, describes how she persuades students to communicate how they solved problems. Additionally, she explains why it is important for her, as a teacher, to listen to the different methods her students use to arrive at their answers. Excerpted from the video series Schools That Work: The Research Advantage videoconference #2, Children as Problem Solvers (NCREL, 1991).

"I've told students, I keep asking them questions, it's very difficult at first, especially for students who are not used being asked how they got the answer. They're very used to just getting an answer but not having to explain it, their standard reply is, 'I just knew it, I just thought it,' and I have to keep saying, 'well what did you just think, what did you know? Can you show me what you thought? Can you show me what you did?' And now the kids are used to that, in fact, they expect me to sit and listen to everything they have done to solve the problem, which I like to do because I want them to listen to each other, and so I think I need to model that I am a good listener also."