Improving the quality of talk and questioning to support pupil learning

Key issue addressed by the study

This research was designed to: – help teachers understand how they

might improve their questioning skills– involve pupils more in lessons– use talk to develop pupils’ thinking and

understanding

How did teachers and pupils interact in whole class teaching?

The dominant interaction pattern was teacher-child-teacher-child

Questions with predetermined answers meant teachers missed opportunities for supporting learning through helping pupils to make connections between what they already knew and new ideas

How could teachers use talk to extend the children’s thinking?

Generating and extending pupil thinking requires sensitive shaping of the classroom dialogue and sensitive listening to pupils’ responses

How did teachers generate and extend pupil thinking?

They planned the first question in a sequence carefully

But considered how subsequent questioning might extend and support learning and understanding

Example of teachers’ extending children’s thinking

Using a simple strategy of enquiring about possible reasons, the teacher elicited a more extended response to a question about why a boy hit his brother

Example of teacher extending children’s thinking

Teacher: Why do you do it? Child: I don’t know Teacher: Did you do it to hurt him? Had he made you

cross? Child: No he kept bugging me so he was walking along

the garden and I lobbed it and it just bounced off the top of his head.

Which pupils were most involved during whole class teaching?:

High achievers, especially girls, put their hands up and joined in collective responses

Low achievers and boys were more likely to be off task

Strategies for maximising participation of all pupils:

Teachers can increase all pupils’ involvement through:

- a ‘no hands up policy’

- inviting children to draw and reflect on personal experiences

Who were the children in the study?

The researchers observed Year 2 pupils from three first schools and Year 6 pupils from three primary schools

How was the information gathered?

The researchers videoed 15 minute teaching episodes during literacy, numeracy and one other curriculum area

Other data were also collected:– observations of sample pupils using structured

schedules to capture verbal and non-verbal responses

– teacher reflections using video as prompt– notes made by researchers recording factors such as

friendships and classroom interruptions

The video recordings captured:

The teacher’s talk The pupils’ responses The pupils’ non-verbal interactions

How can teachers use the evidence in this study?

The study found that it was effective to plan questions without predetermined answers. – You might want to ask a colleague to

observe your whole class teaching session to note the types of questions you ask and their impact on the quality of pupils’ answers.

– Could you include key questions in your lesson planning, along with prompts you could use to extend pupils’ answers?

How can school leaders use the evidence in this study?

The study found that the key point about helping colleagues to develop their questioning skills was to improve the quality of the dialogue

Could you encourage your staff to practice their questioning skills by taking part in role plays with each other or discussing and reflecting on video recordings of classroom episodes?

Follow-up reading

Study reference: Myhill, D. (2006) Talk,talk,talk: Teaching and learning in whole class discourse Research Papers in Education Vol. 21, No. 1 pp. 19-41

Summary available at: http://www.tla.ac.uk/site/SiteAssets/RfT1/06RE033%20Effective%20talk%20in%20the%20primary%20classroom.pdf