Questioning

This module is part of the Teaching & Learning Skils Development course. Each module comprises a short introduction to key skills.  Teachers are challenged to implement these skils over the duration of a month and reflect on their progress toward outstanding provision. 

30 Day Challenge

To implement your new learning and support your journey toward becoming a master teacher the following skills, which demonstrate this module’s outcomes, should be practiced over the next 30 days

Where possible, find a colleague who you know is highly skilled in this area.

Shadow them and learn from them. Ask them to support you by observing you put these new skills into action.

Explicitly plan effective questions all of your lessons

In all lessons use at least two metacognitive questions to challenge students

State questions with precision. Poor wording and the use of rapid-fire, multiple questions related to the same topic can result in confusion. Repeat the question, and explain it in other words if students don't seem to understand. One question at a time or else students won't know how to respond.

Pose whole-group questions unless seeking clarification. Direct questions to the entire class. Handle incomplete or unclear responses by reinforcing what is correct and then asking follow-up questions. Redirect the question to the whole group of the desired response is not obtained.

 

Use appropriate wait time. Wait time encourages all students to think about the response, as they do not know who is going to be called upon to answer the question.This allows everyone to think about not only the question but also the response provided by the student. Three to five seconds in most cases; longer in some, maybe up to 10 seconds for higher-order questions.

Select both volunteers and non-volunteers to answer questions. Female students frequently take longer to respond; give them adequate time to do so. Some teachers use a randomized approach where they pick student names from a hat, so to speak. This ensures equitable participation, and keeps students intellectually engaged.

Respond to answers provided by students. Listen carefully to your students as they respond; let them finish their responses unless they are completely missing the point. Acknowledge correct answers and provide positive reinforcement. Identify incorrect responses and ask for alternative explanations from other students. 

Throw back student questions. Sometimes student will restate the teachers questions in their own words and ask the teacher for a response -- getting the teacher to do the intellectual work. When such an event occurs, restate the question, and pose it to the class.

Interrelate previous comments. As the discussion moves along, be certain to interrelate previous student comments in an effort to draw a conclusion. Avoid doing the work of arriving at a conclusion for your student.

Restate discussion goal periodically. Sometimes the purpose of a discussion will become clouded, and even go off topic. Periodically restate the goal of the discussion so that it is clearly before the students. It is particularly important to ask questions near the end of your discussion that help make it clear whether or not the goal has been achieved. Identify areas in need of clarification.

 

Never nominate a student BEFORE you ask a question. By doing this the rest of the class immediately relax and switch off knowing they will not be on the spot. Always pose the question, then nominate a student. Pause for a moment to allow the whole group to think of the answer then nominate.

Every week ask your students to create a question matrix for a new topic