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Delta Kappan

The Fullness of Silence in the Classroom

Katherine Schultz
Phi Delta Kappan 2012 94: 80
DOI: 10.1177/003172171209400223

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Backtalk
The fullness of silence in the classroom
Teachers typically demand silence when they want students to pay attention or focus
on their own work. There are, however, many more meanings and uses of silence in the
classroom. Both teachers and students use it as a strategy for teaching and for learning.
Silence is a form of classroom
participation that is little under-
stood. In addition to a focus on
talk, silence is a useful strategy
teachers can use to pay atten-
tion to students’ silence, viewing
silence as a stance that students
consciously choose or a situation
that’s produced by classroom dy-
namics and structures. Silence has
multiple meanings and can indi-
cate, among other things, resis-
tance, boredom, thoughtfulness,
or strategic timing.
Silence has Silence in the classroom has
multiple several paradoxical meanings. For
example, student silence might
meanings and indicate intense engagement and
can indicate, deep thought or disengagement.
Silence can be productive or un-
among
productive. Silence can be a sign of
other things, deep respect; conversely, it also can
resistance, be wielded as a sign of disrespect.
A silent stance is most often chosen
boredom, by students. On the other hand,
thoughtfulness, students can be silenced by teach-
ers, peers, and schools as institu-
or strategic tions. Two common, yet opposing,
timing. understandings of silence are as
a form of resistance or assent. At
times, silence connotes fear and an-
ger; other times, silence masks inex-
pressible joy or passion that may be
inadmissible in a classroom. Silence
gives people the time and space to
reflect on their learning. Silence
might protect a student from ridi-
cule; it might also protect a person
from the need to talk about topics
too difficult to verbalize.
KATHERINE SCHULTZ (kschultz@
mills.edu) is dean of the School of Edu-
cation, Mills College, Oakland, Calif. She
is the author of Rethinking Classroom
Participation: Listening to Silent Voices
(Teachers College Press, 2009).
80 Kappan October 2012
Downloaded from pdk.sagepub.com by guest on October 1, 2014
Teachers also use silence in
teaching. Teachers often develop
routines that incorporate silence,
such as providing more time to
reflect or write before answering a
question. Silence lets teachers cre-
ate openings in their classrooms
and curriculum to invite more
students to take an active role in
classroom discussions. Teachers
often ask for silence as a form of
control; alternatively, they worry
when there is too much silence and
students aren’t responsive enough.
Understanding silence as a
form of participation lets teachers
develop a broader and more in-
clusive understanding of students’
multiple forms of engagement in
learning. An important tool for
reframing silence in a classroom
is listening carefully and observ-
ing conversations to identify pat-
terns of talk and silence. Teachers
might pay attention to a particular
moment (e.g., a time in the class-
room where there was notable
silence) or a pattern (certain times
of the day or week when there is
more silence than talk or groups
of students who tend to be silent
at certain times). For instance,
classroom conversations about
difficult topics often lead to si-
lence. In these discussions, teach-
ers might pay attention to who
talks and who is silent. Teachers
might also use silence to find
openings for conversations.
Teachers might ask about the si-
lence of individual students. First,
they might attend to when and un-
der what circumstance the student
is silent. As educators, we can con-
sider how often we give students
opportunities to talk about and act
on topics that feel vital or deeply
connected to their lives. How do
Katherine Schultz
we give them alternative pathways
for expression? On the other hand,
just as some students appear si-
lent in classrooms, other students
are disengaged from learning and
manifest this condition through
talk rather than silence. In other
words, neither talk nor silence is
a proxy for participation or disen-
gagement.
If the student is silent because
she’s disengaged, then the teacher
might examine his own teach-
ing and the classroom dynamics
to look for ways to draw the stu-
dent into classroom conversations
through talk. If the student is en-
gaged, yet silent, the teacher might
simply work out a way for the
student to engage through other
modes than verbal participation,
such as writing, meeting with the
teacher to talk on an individual ba-
sis, talking regularly with a peer, or
expressing ideas in another modal-
ity, such as visual arts.
Student silence may be a prod-
uct of timing. Paying attention to
turn-taking norms in the class-
room, teachers can structure con-
versations to let students predict
when it is their turn to speak. To
increase verbal participation for
older students, teachers might ask
students to write briefly before
talking aloud. Teachers can ask
students of all ages to turn and
talk with a partner before a whole
group discussion.
Rather than assuming the pri-
macy of talk over silence, consider
silence a form of participation,
and learn how it works in your
classroom. Attention to silence
alongside talk will lead to more
equitable classrooms that hold the
possibility of honoring the contri-
butions of all students. K
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