Why should teachers consider encouraging students to 'opt-out' during questioning?
Strategic opting out (e.g., replying “I don’t know”) by students can enhance learning outcomes by improving accuracy, efficiency, and cognitive load management!
What is strategic opting out?
Opting out involves refraining from answering when uncertain, allowing students to focus on tasks within their effective challenge spectrum (Sidi & Ackerman, 2024). This strategy can be integrated into
Definitely – I have felt very uncomfortable with the prescriptive ‘no opt out’ approach. I would rather see each student as an individual and encourage an open dialogue in my classrooms so that students can be challenged at their individual level. The aim is to enable confidence in each student, to teach classroom expectations and routines explicitly so that students can be facilitated to contribute. Some students are uncomfortable with the no opt out approach and it hinders their learning. Some students so benefit from the no opt out approach. It’s up to the skill of the teacher to know their students.