effective questioning - east sussex · • to lead pupils through a planned sequence which ......
TRANSCRIPT
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.
• 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
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
… but make it safe to be wrong
in your classroom. Avoid
sarcasm and humiliation and
don’t allow
this from other pupils, either.
…… 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.