Key words; Why Questions are More Important Than Answers, The purpose of Asking Questions, what
are Effective Questioning, how to Handle Student’s, Responses, Responding to a Student’s
Question
Questioning
Techniques in classroom
Questioning
is the key assignment method by which teachers can find out what pupils already
know in a particular subject, with the help of questioning teachers identify
gaps in the knowledge of students’ and help them to understand their students.
In this way teacher play a vital role in the development of their
understanding, and to enable them to close the gap between what they currently
know and what they need more to learn to achieve a specific goals.
Questions
are the best tool of interaction between pupils and teachers, but the
researcher called it the recall and comprehension. They stress on deep active
processing questions or analytical questions which help the pupil to achieve
deep level thinking and learning. For higher level thinking in order to raise
pupils' levels of achievement they need regular practice in higher level
questions which lead to deep thinking, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating.
Focusing on the questions and the strategies in class room to help us achieve
this goal.
For
example they:
- Questions give immediate feedback on pupils’ understanding; with help of that teacher can modify his teaching method.
- Help pupils to develop higher level analytical and evaluative thanking, it promotes deeper understanding in the students to explore ideas and make connections, helping the students to see the "big picture" of the learning. This leads to a greater motivation and improved engagement of the students in learning process.
- Helps pupils to assess their current knowledge and experience to create new understandings and knowledge.
Planning
key questions in the start of lesson to assess their knowledge about the
previous lesson and what they know about current lesson are they have prepared
themselves for the new lesson. It is this feedback which in turn enables
teachers to understand what pupils need to know next.
Why
Questions are More Important than Answers
The
ability to ask the relevant and right question is the most powerful indicator
of authentic understanding. Asking a question that help teacher in a given
situation is itself an artifact of the critical thinking. Teachers desperately
seek to find the gap in students’ knowledge
Questions are more important than answers because
they reflect both understanding and curiosity in equal portions. To ask a good question
is like to see both backward and forward, it help to make sense of a thing and
what you know about that thing, and then extend your knowledge and to imagine what else can be known about
that particular thing or subject, or what others might know about that.
The purpose of Asking
Questions in academic setting:
§ To
develop interest and motivation in students
§ To
develop critical thinking skills and inquiring attitudes in students
§ To
stimulate students to pursue knowledge on their own
§ To
nurture insights in students by exposing new relations
§ To
review and summarize the previous lessons which they have studied
§ To
evaluate students’ knowledge and readiness for further new learning
Effective Questioning:
§ Always
plan questions in advance
§ Decide
on your aim or purpose to achieve by
asking questions
§ Select
the relevant content for questioning
§ Phrase
your questions carefully
§ While
planning questions, try to anticipate students’ responses
§ Plan
a strategy for handling incorrect answers from students
§ Ask
a majority of lower cognitive questions when instructing younger and lower
ability students
§ Ask
a majority of higher cognitive questions when teaching lower and higher ability
students
§ Give
little time for lower cognitive questions
Teacher’s Attitude during
Questioning session
§ Maintain
eye contact with students
§ Use
non-verbal gestures to indicate your understanding of the answer
§ Listen
to the student and do not interrupt the student
§ Use
the student response to lead to the next question or to make a point
§ While
listening to the student try to determine whether you understand his point of
view. If not then ask for more information or explanation
§ Focus
your attention on the student, not on what you intend to do next
§ Always
call students by their names as instead of pointing in their direction
§ Encourage
all the students to participate in the class
§ Ask
no to volunteers in a non-threatening and friendly way
§ Use
non-verbal positive cues during
questioning and answering session
§ If
the student is incorrect or cannot respond, accept his non-response without
insulting him. Give him a cue or ask if another student in the class may help
him out
§ Select
students Randomly to respond to questions
§ Try
to avoid repeating all student responses. Teacher’s repetition causes students
to learn to listen to you, not their fellow students.
§ Beware
of the student who dominates in classroom by answering all the questions
§ Give
students the opportunity to ask questions. Do not use ‘Any questions?’
§ Avoid
asking all the questions at the end of the session
§ Avoid
looking down at notes after asking a question
§ Your
non-verbal reaction should complement your verbal responses. For example, it is
usually ineffective to say ‘good point’ while looking away or reading notes.
Handling Student’s Responses
Reinforcement
§ Reinforcement
may be verbal or non-verbal.
§ Verbal
reinforcement is a positive cue or word to encourage the student
§ Proper
non-verbal reinforcement includes smiling, nodding and maintaining eye contact
with the student
§ Improper
non-verbal reinforcement includes looking at notes while student speaks,
looking at the board or ruffling with papers.
§ Too
much reinforcement in the classroom is also not good
Probing
§ Probes
are based on student’s responses. The initial response of students may be
superficial. The teacher needs to make students explore initial comments
Examples: Student: It was a violation of due process.
§ Teacher: Can you explain why?
Adjust and Refocus
§ When
a student provides a response which appears out of context, the teacher can
refocus to encourage the student to connect his response to the content being
discussed.
Redirect
§ When
a student responds to a question, the teacher can ask another student to
comment on his statement.
Example:
Teacher: Ali, do you agree with Asad’s comment?
Teacher: Asad, can you give me an example of the
concept that Ali has mentioned?
Rephrasing
In
case of incorrect response, instead of telling the student he is incorrect or
calling upon another student, teacher should try one of the following:
§ Reword
the question to make it clearer
§ Provide
some information to help student come up with the suitable answer
§ Break
the question down into more manageable parts
Responding to a Student’s
Question
§ Redirect
the question to the class
§ Attempt
to help the students to answer his own question
§ Refer
student to a resource where he can fund the answer
§ If
you don’t know the answer to a student’s question, never fake an answer. Ask if
anyone in class can answer the question, or suggest a resource, or answer
yourself in the next class
§ Answer
student’s question yourself if the time is short
Types of Questions
§ Close
Questions
§ Open
Questions
§ Lower Cognitive Questions
1. Knowledge
2. Comprehension
3. Application
Higher Cognitive Questions
1. Analysis
2. Synthesis
3.
Evaluation
