I stole what is below from another site ( I hope they don’t mind), because I couldn’t have said it better myself.

 

The following is based on my personal experience and that of many other teachers. What I describe below actually does occur in the classroom.

Here is the scenario: The student examines some work to be done - a worksheet, some text problems, whatever - and does so for a very short time, usually measured in seconds. Whereupon, the student marches up to the teacher and says "I don't understand how to do this. Explain it to me."

My response: The procedure to solve the problem you have is not contained in the problem itself. Simply looking at the problem does not help you discern how to solve the problem. You must go somewhere else to get the information on how to solve the problem.

At this point the student says "So, you're not going to help me?"

My response: If by "help," you mean "give me the answer immediately," then the answer is "No. For, you see, help has already been provided. The textbook contains an explanation of how to solve the problem. My web site contains an explanation of how to solve the problem. I may have already lectured on this very topic, sometimes to the point of having solved the very problem you, the student, want the answer for."

At this point the student says "But I don't understand!!"

My response: "Of course you don't. When you look at something you don't know how to do, then by definition you don't understand. What you must do is examine the materials provided for guidance in solving the problem. Here, look at this, it is an outline of how to solve the problem. Follow those steps and then ask me to check your work."

Could it be that some students use "don't understand" as a strawman? The student says "I don't understand" and then stops working. After all, the student reasons, "what can you do if you 'don't understand?' " My answer, of course, is that "I don't understand" is where EVERYTHING begins. A person will NEVER move from "don't understand" to "understand" without doing the work. You HAVE to keep working in the face of "I don't understand."

A variation of the "don't understand" scenario is "but you've never told me this." I actually had one student claim it was unfair for me to test anything that wasn't in his notes. My immediate answer: "Great. Never take notes and everything is unfair. Now sit down and get to work." He had a bit of a shocked look on his face as he returned to his work. Another variation is to wait until the day of the test and march up and claim you don't understand anything. Please don't do these to me!!

An interesting twist is to never say "I don't understand" to me. You simply stop working and turn to other important activities, like looking at pictures of friends. After all, what can you do? You DON'T UNDERSTAND!!! When I notice this, I will write the referral!! Then you'll say "but I didn't understand." And I will say, "and you never made one effort to have me help you move from 'don't understand' towards 'understand.' "

Let's say it real clear: you, the student, unilaterally deciding that you "don't understand" as a reason to stop working is totally unacceptable to me, the teacher. In fact, you unilaterally using ANY reason (short of an emergencey) to stop working in class is be unacceptable to me. If that's not clear, then I suppose your experiences with me and your GLC will help clarify the point.

I want it to be obvious (to me, not just to you!!) that you are working hard to understand. That means if you're struggling I want you to call me over and say something like "I want to discuss this problem and here's how I think it should be done. First, you . . . ." You know what I'll do? I'll pull up a chair and say "That's right. Now, you need to look up . . . ." Or maybe the person next to you will lean in and say "You need to do this . . . " and I'll overhear and say "That's right." Or I'll say "No, you need to . . . ." Or, I'll get the attention of the class and say "I just had an interesting question . . . ." Or maybe I'll overhear you and never talk to you, but say to the class "You might be wondering about . . . " and proceed to answer your question.

I hope you get the picture. I do have an obligation to teach, but I also maintain you have an obligation to learn. Both processes are complex and take much effort. I don't want you to give up as your first and only option, I want you to never give up.