Structuring Questioning to Promote

Higher Order Thinking

Resource Materials for Professional Development

“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid

you to enter the house of his wisdom but

rather leads you to the threshold of your

mind.”

Kahlil Gibran

You are not the keeper of all knowledge in your classroom! Promote inquiry,

promote dialogue, let the children tell you what they know and allow them to

share. You can begin this process by…

Asking GREAT Questions!

Objectives of Presentation

To develop teachers’ self-awareness and

analysis of their own questioning techniques

To identify key features of good questioning

To enhance the planning for, and use of,

questions

Importance of Questioning

Questioning is a critical skill for teachers because

it is:

the most common form of interaction

between teacher and student;

the most immediate and accessible way for

a teacher to assess learning

an element of virtually every type and model

of lesson;

a key method of providing appropriate

challenge for all students

Purposes of Questioning

To interest, engage and challenge students

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 students’ thinking from the concrete and factual to

the analytical and evaluative

To lead students through a planned sequence which

progressively establishes key understandings

To promote reasoning, problem solving, evaluation and the

formulation of hypotheses

Alternate Ways to Promote Inquiry The way we form questions is crucial. For many of our special educational

needs children or even all elementary, asking “ Can you…” or “Are you…”

questions may not be helpful for their understanding and not helpful for your

assessment. Many times they are very literal so, these types of questions garner

a “YES/NO” response. Try these alternatives:

Invite students to elaborate

‘Say a little more about that.’

‘I am not sure I’m certain I know what you mean by that.’

Speculate about the subject under discussion

‘I wonder what might happen if …’

Make a suggestion

‘You could try …’

Reflect on the topic

‘Perhaps we now have a way of tackling this next time you…

‘Let’s bring this all together …’

Offer extra information

‘It might be useful to know also that …’

‘I think that I have read that …’

Reinforce useful suggestions

‘I especially liked … because …’

Clarify ideas

‘We can tell this is the case by …’

Correct me if I’m wrong ‘But I thought we had agreed that…’

‘So now perhaps we all believe …’

Echo comments /Summarize

‘So, you think …’

‘Monica seems to be saying …’

Non-verbal interventions: Eye contact, a nod or raised eyebrows to encourage extended

responses, to challenge or even to express surprise

Using Bloom’s and Depth of Knowledge These research based tools are definitely at the center of using your questions to

promote learning, understanding and higher thinking. However, they are not

the first step! Your objective and your idea of what you want students to know,

understand and be able to do guide you to deciding within which level of

Bloom’s and DOK you need to work.

Core Differences for Teacher to Understand

Bloom’s DOK Taxonomy Not Verb Dependent

Verbs Focus on Complexity rather than

Difficulty

Helps Level Questions Depends on the context within which a

Bloom’s verb may be used

Difficulty vs Complexity

Think:

Difficulty measures how many students get a question right.

VS

Complexity measures how many steps it takes to reach an

answer.

Promoting Higher Order Thinking and 21st

Century Skills via Bloom’s

An Example

Effectiveness in the Classroom

Effective questioning is not just a matter of planning which questions

to ask, though that is a key element, but also planning to stage or

sequence those questions so that they guide students towards key

lesson objectives. Effective questioning also depends on how

questions are asked.

The next few pages are examples of formulated question stems. The

how comes from your creativity, thoughtful planning, pre-planning

assessments, clear objectives, and knowledge of learning

expectations.

Best Practices for Effectiveness… A Few Examples, Not the End-All!

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Sample Chart – Not for Actual Use

Using the Same Content Statement Across DOK levels/Grade spans (courtesy Kentucky Department of Education, 2005)

Students will identify and describe properties of and apply geometric transformations within a

plane to solve real-world and mathematical problems.

Webb’s DOK Levels

Recall and Reproduction

(DOK 1)

Skills and Concepts/ Basic Reasoning

(DOK 2)

Strategic Thinking/Complex

Reasoning (DOK 3)

Extended Thinking/Reasoning

(DOK 4)

Students will identify a transformation within a plane.

Students will perform a compound transformation of a geometric figure within a coordinate plane.

Students will perform a geometric transformation to meet specified criteria and then explain what does or does not change about the figure.

Students will abstract the transformations occurring in an Escher woodprint and then create a simplified tessellation of their own.

Depth of Knowledge

What are the Student Learning Outcomes?

Use of Anchor Standards for ELA and Practice Standards for

Mathematics can give guidance for what

skill/understanding/knowledge you want to elicit…

Techniques:

**Thinking Time: No hands, No blurting!- VERY Important!!

• The pace of questioning is unhurried.

• Wait time allows pupils to think through their answers.

• Students are required to formulate their own questions.

• A range of open-ended questions is asked.

• Higher-order questions which require analysis, evaluation and justification are regularly employed.

Extended/sustained responses

• Explanations of answers are routinely required.

• Questions which engage emotions or require opinions are set.

• Challenging ‘why’ questions are posed.

• Students’ answers are valued by the teacher.

Create “Hint Cards” and “Extension Cards” to be put on students’ tables to foster independent

thinking and promote inquiry to gain access points into tasks and go beyond the scope of the task

appropriately.

Active listening

• Questions are posed via “cold calling” (student hand not raised), as well as, volunteers.

• Variety is built into the questions.

Interaction between students

• Carefully structured ‘think, (ink) ,pair, share’ sessions foster detailed, paired discussions and built in wait

time.

• Hot Seat: The teacher places key questions on random seats throughout the room. When prompted,

students check their seats and answer the questions. Students who do not have a hot seat question

are asked to agree or disagree with the response and explain their thinking.

• Students are encouraged to ask each other questions.

• Students are requested to add to and challenge the answers provided by others.

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Best Practices Continued…

Type Example Result Yes/No Factual Multiple Elliptical Indefinite Whiplash Leading Tugging Guessing

Did Romeo kill Juliet? Who killed Caesar? Who are the protagonists in Hamlet and how do they die? Ulysses, what a novel, huh? How are the Odyssey and Ulysses different? Difference is the term Derrida uses to describe what? Don’t you think Delacroix was an orientalist? Can you give me one more adjective to describe Emma Bovary? Why do you think Schubert failed to complete his Unfinished Symphony?

Does not produce discussion, and encourages guessing. Encourages short responses and involves no critical thinking. Confusing, since students will not know which question wants answered. Confusing and unclear. Students will have no idea what the teacher is getting at. Vague, overstated and impossible to answer concisely. Students are prepared to receive information when they are suddenly asked to answer a question. Conveys the expected answer and prevents students from reaching their own conclusions. Students are asked to furnish additional but not really meaningful information. Answer is only a matter of guesswork.

Use these LESS…

These open-ended questions cross curriculum and are cut out

ahead of time, placed in a container (paper bag, etc) and serve to

extend student thinking.

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Summary of Good Questioning

Effective questioning: reinforces and revisits the learning objectives;

includes ‘staging’ questions to draw pupils towards key understanding

OR

to increase the level of challenge in a lesson as it proceeds;

engages pupils in thinking for themselves;

promotes justification and reasoning;

creates an atmosphere of trust where pupils’ opinions and ideas are valued;

shows connections between previous and new learning;

encourages students to ask, as well as, to ‘receive’ questions;

encourages students to listen and respond to each other, as well as, to the teacher!

F

Follow-Up Activity

Record a teaching situation that evokes a question-and-

answer session for at least 5 minutes. This can be Whole

Group, Small Group, or Individual and does not need

video.

Replay the tape to help you to evaluate the different

aspects of your own questioning.

Focus upon whether:

– you asked too many questions;

– you had a balance of open and closed, high- and low-

order questions;

– you encouraged opinion and informed speculation

– you handled incorrect answers effectively;

– you provided thinking time.

Begin to build key questions into your lesson planning.

In a departmental meeting discuss how you might plan

sequences of questions that build up students’

understanding of important concepts.