Effective

questioning

Aims of this session:

• reasons for questioning;

• different strategies for making questioning

more effective;

• different types of ‘thinking questions’ that

can be asked;

• activities that support questioning and

dialogue.

To reflect on:

Questions Teaching is the art of

asking questions

Socrates Good learning starts with

questions, not answers

Guy Claxton

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

The important thing is not to stop

questioning

Albert Einstein

Questions

An average teacher asks 400 questions in a day

That’s 70,000 a year!

One-third of all teaching time is spent asking questions

Most questions are answered in less than a second

Steven Hastings

TES 4 July 2003

Research into broad questions categories

Managerial style ones

(“Have got your books out yet?” etc)

Low-Level/factual recall questions

(“What happens to water when it is heated?”,

“How many sides has a pentagon?”)

High-level questioning

("Would that be true for all words ending in ‘ey’?",

"How could we be certain?")

What is the purpose of asking questions?

Why ask questions?

• To interest, engage and challenge

• To check on prior knowledge

• To stimulate recall and use of existing knowledge and

experience in order to create new understanding and meaning

• To focus thinking on key concepts and issues

• To extend pupils’ thinking from the concrete and factual to the

analytical and evaluative

• To lead pupils through a planned sequence which

progressively establishes key understandings

• To promote reasoning, problem solving, evaluation and the

formulation of hypotheses

• To promote pupils’ thinking about the way they have learned

The purpose of questions

Interaction

Challenge

Influence

Progress

Assessment

What are the pitfalls of questioning? • Asking too many closed questions

• Yes or no questions

• Short answer recall-based questions

• Asking bogus ‘guess what I’m thinking’ questions

• Starting all questions with the same stem

• Pursuing red herrings

• Dealing ineffectively with incorrect answers or

misconceptions

• Focusing on a small number of pupils and not

involving the whole class

• Making the sequence of questions too rigid

• Allowing no ‘wait time’ after asking questions

Effective questioning • Questions are mainly open.

• Questions are planned and related to LOs

• ‘Wait time’ is provided to give pupils time to reflect, or to pose their own questions

• Correct and incorrect answers are followed up.

• Questions are carefully graded in difficulty.

• Pupils are expected to explain and justify answers.

• Collaboration is permitted between pupils before answering, where appropriate.

• All pupils participate e.g. think / pair / share, mini-whiteboards.

• Pupils ask questions too.

• Questions are unplanned with no apparent purpose other than “What’s in my head”.

• Questions are mainly closed.

• Too many questions are asked at once.

• No ‘wait time’ after asking questions.

• Questions are poorly sequenced.

• Teacher judges responses immediately.

• Teacher asks a question then answers it.

• Only a few learners participate.

• Incorrect answers are ignored.

• All questions are asked by the teacher.

Ineffective questioning

Recycling

What questions would you ask a mixed ability class to

gauge their understanding of this topic?

Different types of questions:

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Making choices based on reasoned judgements

Higher Order

Lower Order

Investigate; look for patterns

Problem solve

Explain and interpret

Factual recall

Use old ideas to create new ones; reasoning

Deeper questioning grid

Question Grid

Is?

Present

Did?

Past

Can?

Possibility

Would/could?

Probability

Will?

Prediction

Might?

Imagination

What?

Event

Where?

Place

When?

Time

Which?

Choice

Who?

Person

Why?

Reason

How?

Meaning

Deeper Questioning 2nd

1st

Hands or no hands? Why not?

• Too many pupils will choose not to volunteer.

• Allowing pupils to choose increases the achievement gap between the highest and the lowest achieving pupils.

• The intelligence of pupils is actually increased by actively taking part in discussion.

Why do it?

• Perceived time constraints.

• Don’t want to embarrass pupils who don’t know the answer.

• Helps teacher feel successful.

• (Subconscious) avoidance of need to address wrong answers and slow the pace.

‘No hands up’ classroom culture -

except to ASK a question! Advantages:

• Increases pupil engagement dramatically: they have to be listening!

• Teachers can ensure the participation of all pupils in every lesson.

• Teachers can better assess the understanding and progress of all pupils.

• Pupils learn better when they vocalise answers and ideas for themselves.

Disadvantages:

• Eye contact clues: develop strategies to avoid this.

• Teachers subconsciously choose the strongest pupils who will give the correct answer.

• Teachers tend to ask low-level questions which do little to move learning forward or promote thinking.

High quality questions promote thinking.

Thinking takes time: ‘wait time’.

• When teachers pause after asking a question, more pupils participate in class discussion, answers are longer and of higher quality.

• Wait time 1: the teacher asks a question and pauses before hearing an answer.

• Wait time 2: the teacher hears the answer and pauses again.

• Wait time: a minimum of 3 to 5 seconds.

Wait time is not wasted time, so

why doesn’t it happen?

• Quick-fire question/answer sessions make us feel like we’re achieving great pace.

• Silence can be uncomfortable.

• Impatience (teacher and some pupils)

• The teacher may not realise he/she isn’t giving wait time.

• ‘Wait time 2’ may not happen because many teachers immediately provide the answer themselves if the first answer given is incomplete or incorrect, rather than probing further or inviting other pupils to contribute more information or comment on the answer already given.

Discuss and reflect….

• How long do you wait after asking a

question?

• What do you do if the pupil you ask gives

an incomplete or incorrect answer?

• Do you ask some pupils questions you

know they will get right?

• When you ask a question do you have the

‘right answer’ ready in your head?

• Is the role of questioner solely the realm of

the teacher?

“Only pupils who have questions

are really thinking and learning” criticalthingking.org

“… what is needed is a

classroom culture of

questioning and deep

thinking in which pupils

will learn from shared

discussions with

teachers and from one

another.” Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment.

Black and Wiliam

“have”, or “ask”?

…… but

… but be aware of the

need to deal with

emerging questions;

flexibility is always

needed.

…… but

…you will need to be

aware of your blind

spots in your

classroom to achieve

this.

…… but

No hands up or

a mix of both hands

up and no hands up

…… but

… the quality of

answers will be better

and more pupils will

have an answer to give

you.

…… but

… come back to that

pupil once a correct

answer has been given

by another pupil.

…… but

This is a technique

which encourages

listening and can

reinforce learning.

…… but

This may need to be

scaffolded: you may need

to rewind and lead and

guide with further

questions

…… but

Many pupils respond quietly and are may

not be heard by everyone; the teacher’s

repetition of a given answer allows others

to think about what they have heard.

…… but

That’s a good point, how could

that answer be made even

better?

…… but

… but make it safe to be wrong

in your classroom. Avoid

sarcasm and humiliation and

don’t allow

this from other pupils, either.

…… but

Ask questions to individual

pupils which you know are

outside of their

comfort zone.

…… but

‘How do you know?’

‘Where is the evidence in the text?’

Lucky guesses may be acceptable in

an exam, but not in the learning

process.

Checklist

What is the question trying to achieve?

Looking for overall patterns and

relationships

Making decisions and judgements

Creating something new

Solving problems

Plan the questions