There are no stupid questions, but not asking any questions is stupid

‘Does anyone have any questions?’ says the teacher at the end of the lecture. Your brain is working overtime, and you don't feel as though you have grasped the material 100 per cent yet. Is it because you weren't paying attention and missed some of the information? Is there any relevant question in your head? You ultimately decide not to raise your hand. After all, you don't want to ask anything stupid.

Kiki, a student of Social Geography & Urban Planning, can relate to this reluctance. She rarely asks questions. ‘I often don't pay attention to class, and then I don't want to look stupid by asking a question that has already been asked.' Isha, a student of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, doesn't ask questions often, either. ‘I usually think: “I can figure it out myself,” or I'll ask the person next to me."’

Silly questions
It's quite common to be afraid of asking stupid questions. But what exactly is a stupid question? ‘I've been in classes where the same question is asked four times in a row. At that point, it becomes stupid,’ says Veerle, a Medicine student. Kiki agrees and adds: ‘Actually, it isn't so much stupid as irrelevant or lazy.’

Dana, a Developmental Psychology student, agrees. 'But if people haven't been paying attention during the entire lecture and then start asking questions, I do think those are stupid questions. You should have known the answer, and then you're burdening other people with your own laziness. I think that's stupid.’

According to Johannes Bijlsma, Professor of Criminal Law at Utrecht University, some questions are better unasked, indeed. ‘If you haven't prepared, maybe you should keep your mouth shut.' It's not fun for the lecturer (and your classmates) to answer a question that the student should already know the answer to. Even so, Bijlsma refrains from calling those questions stupid. He just says that ‘if the answer is already clear, there's not much point in asking them.' 

The idea of stupid questions is fear-mongering
To Iris van der Tuin, Professor of Cultural Studies Theory, stupid questions 'absolutely do not exist'. In her view, questions that may be considered stupid are usually those that stand out because they are open-ended or unexpected. ‘A stupid question is a spectre, and I think that's because open questions are so palpable in the lecture hall.’

Van der Tuin compares such a question to a pebble thrown into a lake. ‘I see a question that stands out a bit like that pebble. It creates ripples that are sometimes palpable in the lecture hall.’ She believes that students' reluctance stems from the fact that this effect can be strongly felt, making a question feel inappropriate.

According to her, that does not mean that the question is stupid. ‘These are usually questions that are not entirely in line with the discourse of the subject,’ which, in her view, often makes them even more interesting. Provided the question is approached in the right way, of course.

Taking questions seriously
Teachers often sense students' hesitation to ask questions. ‘Students and teachers are aware of the effect questions can have on other students, ’ says van der Tuin. She emphasises the importance of students feeling free to ask questions. Bijlsma also underscores the importance of encouraging questions, but finds it ‘quite difficult’ to know how to do so sometimes.

Van der Tuin believes that lecturers should always take students' questions seriously. When the value of the question is unclear, it is up to the lecturer to explore what lies behind it. ‘It's crucial to analyse such a question and approach it from all angles because a question can say a lot about the context in which it arises. Perhaps there are unnoticed assumptions in the lecture,’ she explains. An interesting conversation can arise from efforts to find out where a student is coming from with their question.

Put yourself in the students' shoes
Maxima, a Forest & Nature Management student, admires lecturers who are good at this. ‘I ask stupid questions sometimes, and I think it's a real talent that lecturers can still get to the heart of the matter and give me the answer I was looking for. That must come from experience.’

However, it is not only up to the lecturer to approach the question in the right way. 'The lecturer does their best to convey information. If a student doesn't understand something, it's their job to make it clear to the teacher what exactly they don't understand,' ponders Dana. She sometimes gets annoyed by overly broad questions as they force the teacher to work hard to answer them satisfactorily. 'Students must try to formulate their questions better and more precisely,' she believes.

Van der Tuin acknowledges students' responsibility. She says that they can make the connection between themselves and the study materials much clearer by specifying which course they have taken, which book they have read and thus which perspectives are hidden in the question. ‘That's how you position yourself.'

Cutting it short
It is therefore worthwhile to formulate questions carefully and take them seriously. However, according to Van der Tuin, that does not mean lecturers can or want to answer every question. ‘The lecture generally has a direction that a lecturer prefers not to disrupt. As a lecturer, you can write the question on the board and say: "This is potentially interesting, but not right now”.’

Bijlsma can relate to this situation and says that things can vary enormously between lectures and seminars. In seminars, interaction is enjoyable and beneficial: 'It is important to stimulate discussion during seminars. One of the things we can do is not give the answer to a question immediately, but instead ask how students themselves see it or have small groups discuss the question. That is more difficult to do in lectures, where you quickly interact with a small group, even though as many as seven hundred people are in the room. In that case, it is more important to stay closer to the subject matter.’

Veerle has noticed that lecturers sometimes struggle with off-topic questions. ‘They spend a long time discussing a topic that is not actually related to the core subject.’ In her view, lecturers should cut off such questions so that they do not take over the entire class. Dana sees that happen often, too, especially in well-attended lectures. Sometimes, she gets annoyed when people ask questions that are too far removed from the subject matter. ‘When you're sitting in a room with two hundred people, it's just not the right moment, but in a study group, it's almost always fine. After all, that's where you can go into things in more depth.’

So, is there such a thing as a stupid question?
According to Van der Tuin, if a question comes across as irrelevant or unnecessary, it means that its relevance has not yet been found. Bijlsma also recognises the intelligence of certain open questions and maintains that questions are never really stupid.

Veerle and Dana see things differently. In their view, stupid questions definitely exist. Lazy, inattentive, irrelevant or unnecessary, it all boils down to the same thing. Isha also finds the cliché too simplistic. She thinks that some questions are just annoying, and it's better to bite your tongue.

One thing is clear, though: it is more frustrating for lecturers and students alike when no questions are asked at all. When teachers say that stupid questions do not exist, they are just trying to encourage students to speak up. ‘That is better than not daring to ask questions. That is really annoying,’ says Isha. In short, according to the students, asking no questions at all is even stupider than asking stupid questions.