Abstract
Very often in my classes over the years students have come to me to announce that they are ‘stuck’ and ‘don’t understand’. A conversation then takes place in which I would ask things like, ‘where are you stuck?’ or ‘what don’t you understand?’. This then presents the student with an even greater problem – to explain what they do not understand. Unless they are able to pinpoint the problem (such as ‘I don’t understand the word, catalyst’, or ‘I missed the lecture on the origins of democracy’) it can be difficult for them to explain what they do not know, when they do not know it. As a teacher you then spend time trying to diagnose the source of the student’s problem.