What techniques or strategies do you use to improve your questioning strategies?
Show
In
2010, Ross Morrison McGill founded @TeacherToolkit from a simple Twitter account through which he rapidly became the 'most followed teacher on social media in the UK'. In 2015, he was nominated as one of the '500 Most Influential People in Britain' by The Sunday... Where should teachers invest their time and energy in the classroom?
I’m a huge fan of questioning and teacher scripts. The benefits of using questioning as an assessment tool for pupils retention, behaviour and self-regulation are immeasurable, not to mention the long-term impact on teacher workload, in and out of the classroom. New research recommends that dialogue in class helps students to elaborate and activates hard thinking. Here are three of my favourites strategies which will help you do just this. 1. Think-Pair-ShareMost teachers know and use ‘think-pair-share’, but how can they use it more productively? While this strategy can be really effective, it’s important to make sure students are actually thinking about your question. Whether students are sitting or standing, talking aloud or sitting quietly, how do you really know that they are thinking about your question? A simple strategy to combat this is to ask students to write down their responses on paper before sharing their answer with another student. As simple as it sounds, it is a direct way to ensure all students have thought about an answer and have prepared a response. To support retrieval from long-term memory, the teacher should also ask pupils to say the answer out loud, or ‘show me’. 2. Pose, Pause, Pounce, BounceWhen deciding on what question to ‘pose’, a teacher must instil questioning behaviours to ensure the desired response. For example:
Once students are clear about the questioning methodology used, the teacher should ‘pause’ to give students thinking time. Why? Well, firstly, pupils need time to think about what has been asked. Secondly, this gives pupils valuable time to process and help reduce cognitive load. The ‘pause’ itself serves to reduce any unnecessary information (extraneous load) and in my opinion, helps a teacher to refine their instruction. Be clear and precise. The ‘pounce’ (personally) should follow the advice below in-keeping with Cold Call. All students should be ready to answer. The ‘bounce’ is essential and that the ‘pounce’ response is passed on to another pupil, rather than the teacher evaluating the initial response. This is a strategy I’ve used for 15 years, coined by one of my colleagues, it rose to popularity when I wrote about it in The Guardian. It’s simple in theory, but difficult to practise. 3. No Opt OptIt is important that teachers increase their success rate when posing questions to the whole class. This requires asking all pupils to keep their hands down and be ready to provide a response. Questions such as, ‘Who can tell me?’ invite pupils is to either call out or put their hands up. If a pupil cannot be bothered to respond or doesn’t know the answer, they will simply opt-out because the language used subconsciously highlights this. The teacher must instil a sense of rigour into the classroom. When using the no opt-out strategy, pupils need to know that if they do not know the answer, or refuse to offer a response, they must know that the teacher will navigate the classroom (to develop thinking) and come back to the original pupil to articulate a response. ‘Saying it out aloud’ is the act of retrieval.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing using this site we'll assume you're OK with this. Accept Read More Questioning techniques for teachers and teacher aidesQuestioning techniques – a set of methods used by teachers when asking questions, such as wait time and bounce. Experienced teachers recognise the power of questions. When skilfully delivered, questions boost student engagement, improve understanding and promote critical thinking.i However, when done poorly, students shut down and quickly become deflated, bored and disengaged. A poorly chosen teacher response for an incorrect student answer can also have devastating consequences. For these reasons, a teacher’s questioning techniques can make or break a lesson. While some teaching and learning strategies are easy to learn – questioning is not one of them. There is so much more to this strategy than first meets the eye. However, with practise, reflection, and by using a few hints and tips, anyone can master this quintessential teaching strategy. There is no doubt that teachers ask a lot of questions and we can therefore safely deduce that a teacher’s questioning skills have a sizeable impact on learning. Teachers ask hundreds of questions almost every day; in fact, questions are responsible for a significant portion of class time. Studies have shown that teachers ask up to 120 questions per hour or 400 questions per day.ii This equates to a staggering 70,000 questions per year. Imagine the difference between 70,000 poorly phrased questions and 70,000 skilfully phrased questions! To put it another way, teachers spend around 45 minutes per day (or 4 hours per week) asking questions and listening to replies (based on 40 seconds per interaction). That’s approximately 20% of class time – more than what most teachers allocate to reading and writing combined. There is no doubt that teachers ask a lot of questions and we can therefore safely deduce that a teacher’s questioning skills have a sizeable impact on learning. That being the case, learning to ask questions the right way is a ‘no brainer’. However, before we go any further, we need to briefly examine why teachers ask so many questions. Some of the reasons for asking questions include:
When skilfully delivered, questions boost student engagement, improve understanding and promote critical thinking. There are various models that classify question types into neat categories. A favourite amongst teachers is the model below which has 5 simple categories.
An alternative model that can be used to guide best practice questioning techniques is Bloom’s taxonomy (which is the next teaching strategy in this book). It is generally considered good practice to consciously use different types of questions throughout any given lesson. New teachers tend to ask too many direct and closed questions which require no more than simple recall. While this may be appropriate in some instances, most of the time teachers want to challenge the cognitive abilities of their students. This requires a different type of question (such as probing or hypothetical questions). Below is a brief explanation of the 5 most important questioning techniques that every teacher needs to master: Plan your sequenceIf you intend to hold a question session, it pays to plan your sequence of questions beforehand. With experience and practise you may not need to plan, however jotting down key points as a reminder can never hurt. Question sequences can be planned in a number of ways, such as from facts to ideas, from simple to complex, from closed to open, or from basic to difficult. Sometimes simple questions are all that are required (such as for revision and consolidation purposes). It’s also important to consider the types of answers that you might receive and your subsequent reply when planning your question sequence. Phrase each question correctlyQuestions should have a single focus. It is considered bad form to pose 2 questions in 1 sentence as it can be confusing. Questions should be as short as possible and to the point – concise and precise. Consider how you phrase your questions. For example, leading questions should be avoided, such as ‘why are cities better to live in than country towns?’. This poorly phrased question assumes that cities are better than towns as if it was an established fact. The correct way to phrase this question is: ‘Is it better to live in cities or country towns?’. However, the problem with the question now is that it a direct question and the response most likely will be limited to either ‘cities’ or ‘towns’. The teacher might follow up with a second question such as ‘what are you comparing it to?’ or for more advanced students ‘what criteria did you use to make your decision?’ (and then ‘could there be other criteria?’). In this example, the sequence began with a simple question allowing less able students to participate, and then moved to more complex questions to challenge students with higher cognitive abilities. Note that the teacher refrained from asking multiple questions at the same time and ensured that each question was only as long as it needed to be. It’s not just what you sayOther factors can also impact the effectiveness of your questions, such as your:
Hint: try this – speak to your students using an uncomfortably low volume (even a loud whisper). This forces students to sit perfectly still and to pay really close attention. It can also add extra excitement and drama. Hold your horsesWait time is the short period of time between asking a question and selecting someone to answer it. This technique is simple, essential, effective and easy to master with almost no practise. Once you have asked the question, simply wait 3-5 seconds before choosing someone to respond. The wait time forces all learners to think of an answer in case they are the one chosen by the teacher. It also provides all students with enough time to process the question and to think of the answer. New teachers tend to choose one of the first students who raise their hands. This is a mistake that causes less able students to lose interest. Hint: wait time can be as long as you want it to be. However, let students know if they have 30 seconds or 30 minutes to think of a reply. Manage incorrect responders with careIncorrect responders are students who provide an answer that is either partially or completely incorrect. Non-responders are students who don’t respond at all. How you handle these students is one of the most critical and challenging aspects of using questions. If students believe that an incorrect response means that they might be embarrassed or criticised in some way, they are unlikely to eagerly participate in any public forum. This has negative consequences for their self-esteem, motivation and their sense of safety and belonging. It can also have long-term academic consequences due to reduced participation. The most important take-away from this technique is to protect incorrect responders and non-responders. If a student gets an answer wrong, let them know that they were close, or complement them on what they did get correct. At the very least, tactfully phrase your response with something like ‘good to see you trying’ or ‘nice try – that’s a common answer – why do so many people think that?’. There are a number of ways that teachers can protect incorrect responders to ensure that they feel safe to participate:
Other techniquesSo far, we have discussed the main questioning techniques used by high-performing teachers. Here are a few simple tips to improve your practice:
A sign that a teacher has mastered the art of questioning is when question time naturally morphs into a class discussion or even a friendly debate. It means that all students are motivated, thinking critically and the participation rate is high. Students need to feel safe for this happen; questions need to be phrased well and be interesting and engaging. Foot notes:
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to check his article for accuracy, information may be outdated, inaccurate or not relevant to you and your location/employer/contract. It is not intended as legal or professional advice. Users should seek expert advice such as by contacting the relevant education department, should make their own enquiries, and should not rely on any of the information provided. How can you improve questioning strategies?11 quick ways to improve your questioning technique. Take time to work on your questions. ... . Plan your questions in advance. ... . BUT…Be an agile questioner too! ... . Use closed questions with caution. ... . Ask open questions. ... . Have an open questioning mindset. ... . Speak the same language. ... . Stay neutral.. What are the 5 questioning techniques?5 essential questioning techniques for legal professionals. #1 Open-ended versus closed-ended questioning.. #2 Funnel questioning.. #3 Asking probing questions.. #4 Asking leading questions.. #5 Asking rhetorical questions.. What are the questioning strategies?Question Strategies. Establish expectations early. ... . Let students know who will be called on and why. ... . Prepare meaningful questions in advance. ... . Be cautious of asking "Are there any questions?" ... . Wait for the answer. ... . Reach non-responsive students with wait times. ... . Encourage student-to-student interaction.. What are the three 3 questioning techniques that are commonly used?Questioning Techniques. Open and Closed Questions. An open question is a question that starts with “how”, “what”, “when”, “where”, “who” or “why” and cannot be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”. ... . Funnel Questions. ... . TED Questions – (Tell, Explain, Describe) ... . Leading Questions. ... . Signposting.. |