1. The Art & Science of Questioning

2. But Why??? As we all know, young children are full of questions.
Sadly, by fifth grade, questions almost disappear.
Schools tend to not foster questions.
Let’s change this!
Instruction which includes posing questions during lessons is more effective in producing achievement gains than instruction carried out without questioning students.
Oral questions posed during classroom recitations are more effective in fostering learning than are written questions.
Questions which focus student attention on the most important points of the lesson result in better comprehension than questions which do not.
Questioning makes student thinking visible and provides immediate feedback to the teacher.

3. The Art & Science of Questioning
“If only I could ask the right question” Albert Einstein
“I have no answers, only questions” Socrates c. 300 BC
Urbanoski, Janice. Questions and the Role of Questioning Techniques in the Classroom.
Ever since Socrates asked questions to provoke his students into thinking and analyzing their thoughts about 2200 years ago, educators have recognized the value of good questioning strategies. Researchers estimate that up to 90 percent of questions asked in elementary and secondary school ask students to regurgitate information.
The art of asking questions is one of the basic skills of good teaching. Socrates believed that knowledge and awareness were an intrinsic part of each learner. Thus, in exercising the craft of good teaching an educator must reach into the learner’s hidden levels of knowing and awareness in order to help the learner reach new levels of thinking.
Questions serve many purposes, including assessing what students already know, setting the stage for a new lesson by piquing students’ curiousity, determining what factual information students have absorbed, and stimulating higher-order thinking so students can apply what they’ve learned to new situations.

4. Questions Help Us To… Construct meaning Enhance understanding
Find answers
Solve problems
Find specific information
Acquire a body of information
Discover new information
Propel research efforts
Clarify confusion
Contributes to learning
Sparks further questions and interest in seeking answers
Involves critical and creative thinking
Goes beyond recall of basic information
Provides challenge but is not too threatening
Is appropriate to the learning situation and the student
Builds on prior knowledge and makes connections
Involves students in reflection and/or planning

5. How do students feel about questions?
Generally fear them, which stops learning
We usually only ask a 2nd question when the first response was wrong = students have an aversion to the 2nd question
If redirection/probing are vague or critical (“That’s not right; try again”; “Where did you get an idea like that?”) students may not continue to respond and achievement does not improve.

6. Hook their interest! Make questions an “itch”, not a “scratch”
Odd fact, anomaly, counterintuitive example
Provocative entry question
Mystery
Challenge
Problem or issue
Experiment—predict outcome
Role-play or simulation
Personal experiences
Emotional connection
Humor

7. Give them firm ground to stand on… Question their background knowledge first!
Guide students from the known to the unknown
Use cues, questions, and organizers to set the stage for learning
Before new knowledge can be incorporated into student’s existing schema, the schema must be activated
Start by asking what students already know
Focus on content that is most important, not on what students will find most interesting (hopefully you can make important content interesting!)
You can discover and clear up misconceptions by taking time to ask questions before you begin a unit of study!

8. Applying Bloom’s Bloom’s Taxonomy gives a six-fold model to comprehension.
Here is an example of questions used with a simple source; a nursery rhyme….
Little Boy Blue
Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn,
The sheep’s in the meadow, and the cow’s in the corn,
Where’s the little boy who looks after the sheep?
He’s under the haystack, fast asleep.
Higher-order thinking skills
A skilfully orchestrated question and answer session
causes a chain effect, in which, the instructor and
students can journey from simple factual inquiries to
an insightful exchange of information, ideas and
realizations. As an instructor’s ability to engage the
learner, and incorporate questioning techniques into
the classroom increases, so will the opportunity of teachable moments.

9. Questioning with Little Boy Blue
Knowledge (Remembering): What is the color of the boy’s coat?
Comprehension (Understanding): Can you describe his coat in your own words?
Application (Solving): Do you know someone like Little Boy Blue?
Analysis (Reasoning): Why might he have fallen asleep?
Synthesis (Creating): I wonder how he will explain to the farmer how the cow got into the corn?
Evaluation (Judging): Does it matter if he falls asleep if no one ever finds out?
A Caution about Taxonomies: Don’t just ask a question from each of the categories. Since you will be teaching important related concepts, ideas and generalizations-not isolated, unconnected facts-you will want to ask related questions that build these concepts, ideas and generalizations. In planning your questions, begin with a higher level question, then ask only the lower-level questions that help answer that higher-level question.

10. Explicitly teach the language of critical thinking-the verbs!
Let’s compare these …... (instead of look)
What do you predict will happen when……? (instead of think)
How can you classify……? (instead of group)
Let’s analyze this problem. (instead of work this problem)
What conclusions can you draw? (instead of what did you think)

11. Questioning Do’s and Don’ts
1. Pose the question first, before asking the student to respond.
2. Allow plenty of think time by waiting at least 5 seconds.
3. Make sure you give all students the opportunity to respond rather than relying on volunteers. Create a system to help you keep track of who you call on.
4. Hold students accountable by expecting and facilitating their participation and
contributions.
5. Never answer your own questions. Do not accept “I Don’t Know”.
6. Establish a safe environment for risk taking by guiding students in the process of learning from their mistakes. Always dignify incorrect responses by saying something positive.
7. After asking the question, the instructor would remove himself from the center of attention.
8. When a student asks the instructor a question the instructor should redirect the question to the class.
Responding to Questions: Simply posing a variety of questions hardly creates a climate for inquiry. How a teacher poses them is equally as important. Recent research (Sacker and Sadker, 1985) suggest that too often students’ replies meet with little more than a passing uh huh.
It is extremely important to pause after a question. This silence allows the
students the opportunity to compose their thoughts,. There is a direct correlation between
the pause time and the quality of the response. Higher level questions require
considerable time for students to formulate answers. A longer response time will foster a
climate for students to become critical thinkers.

12. Kai Zen

13. Should All questions be “Fat”?
“Skinny” question more effective when
teacher wants to give factual knowledge
and help students commit those facts to memory
If using “skinny” question, level of difficulty should elicit correct responses
A mix of “fat” and “skinny” questions is superior to exclusive use of one or the other.

14. Wait-time Advantages For Teachers:
Increases expectations for students usually perceived as slow
Expands the variety of questions asked
Increases number of higher cognitive questions asked
Increases flexibility of teacher responses (teachers listen more and engage students in more discussions)

15. Wait-time Advantages For Students: Decreases no response
Expands variety of responses
Increases student-to-student interactions
Increases number of questions posed by students
Improves retention
Increases number of higher cognitive responses
Increases length of responses
Increases number of unsolicited responses

16. How to respond to student answers:
Use student responses to form your next question and narrow the focus of the discussion
Probing questions help you know how deeply the student is thinking
Teacher redirection and probing help student achievement when they focus on clarity, accuracy, plausibility of student responses.

17. Your response to their answers will determine whether or not they continue to answer!
Acknowledge correct responses
Listen carefully to student responses!
Praise of student responses should be sincere and credible and should be used sparingly.
Establish community where all answers are accepted as a gift – model this for your students

18. Don’t Forget:
Ask questions that focus on most important elements of the lesson
Ask questions before and after material is read and studied
Scaffold lower ability students: ask lower cognitive questions, gradually transitioning to higher cognitive questions. Ensure student success during questioning experiences.
Teach students strategies for making inferences.
3 seconds for lower cognitive questions
More than 3 seconds for higher cognitive questions
Allow generous wait time for lower ability students