Blog Post #6

What questions do we ask? How do we ask them? What do we need to know about asking questions to be an effective teacher?

We all know that teachers are infamous for asking questions. Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? Does everyone understand? Repeat. Why do we ask so many questions? Most teachers would say it's a mindless habit. Ben Johnson elaborates on what it is like from a students perspective. After a few weeks of class students are fully aware of which classmates enjoy blurting out the answer. I will be the first to admit that I hated being called on in class. All throughout high school I was that student who let out a huge sigh of relief when the teacher called on someone else to answer. How can educators use effective questioning to better engage their students?

The Teaching Center lists general strategies for asking questions:
- When planning questions, keep in mind your course goals. What do you want your students to learn?
- Avoid asking "leading questions." These are questions that give away their own answer.
- Follow a "yes-or-no" question with an additional question. Get students to explain their answer. This is a good method to use to verify your students have understood the lesson.
- Aim for direct, clear, specific questions. Use a series of depth to build depth and complexity.
- In classroom discussions, do not ask more than one question at once. This is an easy way to get yours students confused.
- When you plan each class session, include notes of when you will pause to ask and answer questions. This is helpful for the teacher in measuring a students understanding of the lesson. It is important to keep the students engaged rather than waiting until after class.
- Ask a mix of different types of questions. All students think differently. Using open ended questions and closed ended questions is a thoughtful way to turn on the lightbulbs of all your students.

What is a close-ended question? According to Dr. Chesley's youtube video Asking better questions in the classroom, a close-ended question structures the response for a student. It can be answered with a brief phrase or with one word, typically being "yes" or "no". What is a open-ended question? It is a question that leaves the answer up to the person who is responding. This method of questioning is for eliciting more thinking and yields more information. When you ask a student a close-ended question during your teaching and you receive a one word response you are getting exactly what you have asked for. The student tells you the answer you want to hear and they no longer have to think about the topic at hand. One way to avoid a close-ended question is by using the same content of the question and adding "what if" to the beginning or "what do you believe". This generates thinking and the student will immediately begin imagining the scenario in a variety of ways.

While doing a bit of research on questioning in the classroom I stumbled across a website titled Tips for Teachers. The site states that teachers of project-based learning have to encourage students asking questions and peer questioning to improve overall student engagement. We want to use questions that ask students to elaborate, justify, and extend their thoughts and ideas. I thought this was a good site to use for many reasons. Project-based learning is a focus of this site just as it is for Dr. Strange in EDM310. They have listed questioning strategies that provoke high level thinking. A good example of promoting higher thinking is asking a student to describe or observe an event or object. The site also goes on to discuss asking probing questions and divergent questions.
Overall asking questions in the classroom may not be as simple as it generally seems. There are many methods to use to keep students involved in the learning process. I think the most important task in being a teacher is finding ways to engage students in learning. A good place to start is by asking questions.