Encourage Students To Use ‘No Opt Out’ During Questioning!
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Ross Morrison McGill founded @TeacherToolkit in 2010, and today, he is one of the ‘most followed educators’on social media in the world. In 2015, he was nominated as one of the ‘500 Most Influential People in Britain’ by The Sunday Times as a result of…
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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 instructional design to optimise learning.
What does this mean for teachers?
The research suggests “the consequences of allowing [students] to opt-out as part of instructional design have been mostly overlooked.”
In essence, knowing how to ‘opt-out’ helps students learn how to manage ‘their’ cognitive load, and this dear reader, is an essential part of teaching students metacognition.
Why is opting out important?
Research indicates that both adults and children can use opt-out options to enhance the quality of their responses. It improves accuracy, prevents wasted effort on unsolvable tasks, and helps manage cognitive load.
How do teachers integrate opting out into the classroom?
For many years I have advocated that teachers should use the ‘No Opt’ technique from Doug Lemov’s work in Teach Like A Champion – see this example – and I still believe this is a good option today. However, teaching students to also know when and how to opt out during the questioning process is just as important.
Introducing ‘strategic opting out’ should be an explicit process taught to students so that we do not encourage the “I don’t know” response we often see in classrooms. What this looks like will take me a bit more time to consider …
Reflection questions for teachers:
- How can teachers gradually introduce opting out in their classroom?
- Which tasks in the curriculum could benefit from an opt-out option?
- How could teachers monitor the effectiveness of opting out for students?
- What strategies can teachers use to ensure students do not misuse the opt-out option?
- How can teachers balance challenging tasks with the opportunity to opt out?
- How might opting out affect students’ long-term learning and confidence?
- What training will teachers need to provide to help students use opting out effectively?
- How can teachers incorporate feedback mechanisms to support students who opt out?
- What role does classroom culture play in students’ willingness to opt out?
- How can teachers ensure that opting out does not lead to disengagement?
The research concludes:
… opting out underscores the importance of preparing students for the challenges that they will face as future professionals, equipping them with the skills to embrace and navigate uncertainty and change.
Download the full paper.
