students in a class?

Question

why is so that some students ask questions to the teacher in front of the class (while the whole class is listenting ), while some students prefer to ask privately to teachers

Answer 1

The students who ask questions openly in class 1) want to be heard and seen asking questions in class - thus giving proof that they are involved in classroom discussions and 2)don't care about the opinions of their classmates as long as they are learning something. The students who privately ask questions of a teacher do not want to be made "fun" of by the rest of the class in case their question turns out to be "stupid". To them I say - the ONLY truly stupid question is the one that's never asked.

Answer 2

There are so many different answers to your question. But it really depends on the student who asks the question. Some students are shy and some students are more confident. Some students may ask questions out loud in class in order to gain favor with the teacher (i.e. to show that they are paying attention./ to get credit for class participation/ to get others motivated to speak up if the class is too silent, thereby taking some pressure off of the teacher). Some may ask questions out loud because they believe they have a really good question that the rest of the class may benefit from. Or they may ask out loud because it shows their depth of critical thinking and it could be a good way to show off one's understanding of the material.

Conversely, some students may ask a teacher in private because they do not wish to hold the class back if they can see that they seem to be the only ones not understanding the material. Or they may feel foolish by asking a "simple" question in front of the rest of the class? These people could by shy? Or they may have a question that is not altogether directly related to the discussion at hand and may consequently wait to ask the question in private when it will not get the class off course. Come to think of it, I remember asking questions in class in order to distract the teacher and get her sidetracked so that we could waste away the class without going further into the boring material of that day. LOL.

There are so many different reasons that begin with the individual's comfort level and self-perception, continue with the class, professor, and inter-personal dynamics, and then ends with the material being discussed, of course, the location and how conducive it is to open discussion, etc., and of course what type of class it is. After all, one would think that a literary course would generate more questions, challenges, and open discussion than an intro calculus course. But then again, that depends on the caliber of the teaching and of the students.

As you can see, there are so many reasons and factors that go into it. Or then again, maybe I'm just making this more complicated than it needs to be.

Answer 3

Shyness. Not to mention that some kids don't want to seem like a 'teacher's pet".

Answer 4

maybe some are shy. While others want to learn from other means.