“Do you have any questions?” you ask your student. “No,” they reply.

But you know that they struggled with a paragraph in the article you just read together. Why won’t they ask about it?

It turns out that this is a common scenario in teaching – whether in the classroom or online and in the medical field. Just like students, patients are often reluctant to ask their doctor questions.

So what explains this reluctance? And how can we encourage students to ask more questions?

Assure students that “Do you have any questions?” isn’t just a classroom ritual.

One of our students told me, “I never asked questions in school. Actually, my professors in university always ended class by saying, ‘Do you have any questions? No? Class dismissed!’”

Unfortunately, this situation is more common than we’d like to think. As a result, many students around the world see “Do you have any questions?” as just a classroom ritual. To them, it’s not a real question, so why should they respond? For this reason, some schools caution teachers against asking such questions.

So how do we show students that we truly want them to ask questions? One way is to rephrase the question. In the medical field, for example, doctors are now trained to ask patients, “What questions do you have?” This makes it more difficult for patients to just say “no.”

Tutor Asja (🇧🇦) recommends rephrasing the question like this: “If I asked you to make sentences with these words, could you do it?”, or more simply, “Can you make a sentence with this word?” Forcing students to think about using an unfamiliar word or grammar point can help them realize that they need help with it.

Note the things your students struggle with during the lesson and then ask them specifically about those. “When we’re reading a passage together,” says Tutor Alesia (🇧🇾), “I keep a mental note of the words the student struggled to read. Then when the student says they don’t have any questions, I ask them, ‘What about this word? Do you understand this word?’”

Give students extra encouragement to ask the questions they need.

Now we know how to rephrase the question, “Do you have any questions?” But what do we do when students are still reluctant to ask questions?

From the medical field, we know that patients are often worried about "taking up too much time or bothering someone they perceive as an authority figure.” This also applies to our students.

So first, we want to make sure we seem inviting. For example, if we speak too quickly or interrupt the student, they may think we're in a rush and don’t have time for questions.

We should also make the student feel good about asking questions. A simple phrase like, “Good question!” can go a long way. You can also say that you struggled with a similar problem (“I also had a hard time understanding this when I was learning English.”), or acknowledge the difficulty of the word or topic (“This is a difficult word, isn’t it?”).

And don’t forget to ask your student if they have any more questions. Following up with “What questions do you still have?”, “What other questions do you have?”, or “What else are you not 100% sure about?” will ensure that students know you truly want to help them.

At the end of the lesson, be sure to thank the student for asking questions. For example, you can say, “You asked a lot of good questions today! Keep it up! We really appreciate questions. They help us know how to better help you!”

📌 Takeaways

To recap, here are some recommendations for encouraging students to ask questions:

So next time a student hesitates to ask questions, try these tips! They’ll be grateful for it. After all, what student doesn’t want a tutor who makes them feel comfortable – or even smart – for asking questions?