Effective Questioning
Key Messages
• Assessment is at the heart of effective
teaching and learning
• Assessment information is used to identify
learning needs and adjust teaching
• Three interrelated and complementary
approaches support student achievement:
Assessment of learning
Assessment for learning
Assessment as learning
Learning Outcome:
Enable teachers to use questioning to enhance teaching
and learning in the classroom.
Success Criteria:
 Know the key elements of effective questioning.
 Identify strategies within AfL that contribute to
effective questioning.
 Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to develop deeper forms of
thinking.
 Become aware of common pitfalls in questioning.
 Formulate effective questions for different
subject/curricular areas.
Defining Assessment
“Assessment in education is about gathering,
interpreting and using information about the processes
and outcomes of learning”.
“It takes different forms and can be used in a variety of
ways...”
Assessment in the Primary School Curriculum –
Guidelines for Schools. NCCA 2007 p.7
http://www.juniorcycle.ie/About.aspx
Continuum of assessment
NCCA, 2007
Questioning
•Approximately 80% of a teacher's school day goes on
asking questions (Stevens 1912)
•More contemporary research on teacher questioning
behaviours and patterns indicate that this has not
changed
Short activity
•How many questions do you think you ask each day
in class?
DID YOU KNOW THAT….
Approximately 15% of classroom time is devoted to
those 350 questions asked per day. However, very few
are planned questions and as a result, are often low
level, mundane questions. In fact, when analysed, only
around 20% of questions actually require any thinking
from learners…..
(David Spendlove, Putting Assessment for Learning into Practice
2009)
Why do students in school ask so few questions?
• Lack of opportunity
• Lack of interest – not worth answering
• Fear of failure
• Not enough time to think
• Don’t know how to ask questions
• Teacher only asks the bright/same pupils
• Teacher asks too many questions at once
• Teacher is looking for one answer
• Teacher answers the questions themselves
The purpose of questioning 1
(Morgan and Saxton, 1991)
•to check on prior knowledge and understanding
•to stimulate recall
• to keep students actively involved
•to focus pupils’ thinking on key concepts and issues
•to help pupils to extend their thinking from the concrete
and factual to the analytical
The purpose of questioning 2
( Morgan and Saxton, 1991)
• to promote reasoning, problem solving
• to give opportunities for students to openly
express their ideas and thoughts
• to enable students to hear different explanations of
the material by their peers
• to pace lessons and moderate student behaviour
• to evaluate student learning
Task
What are the elements of effective questioning?
Effective questioning
Questions must have a purpose
• Why am I asking this?
• What am I trying to teach and what do I expect
students to learn?
Effective questioning
Linked to learning outcomes & success criteria
• Involves all students
• Encourages students to think for themselves &
become critical thinkers
• Deepens understanding
Effective questioning
Promotes discussion
• Teacher is more interested in what the student thinks
and why rather than the correct answer
• Wait time is allowed
Effective questioning
Followed by respectful and valid feedback from the
teacher to promote a climate of enquiry
Includes both Closed questions to elicit
knowledge/understanding and Open questions to
promote higher order thinking and to extend learning.
Effective questioning
Results in students being more likely to
• Develop a fuller understanding of an idea because
they have tried to explain it themselves
• Link ideas with existing knowledge
A Safe Environment
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There is mutual respect
All responses are acknowledged
Partially correct answers are valued
Ample wait-time is provided
Self-correction is encouraged
Group work
Time for discussion
Preparation is rewarded
Questioning that fosters
student achievement
• allow three to five seconds of wait time after asking a
question before requesting a student's response
• encourage students to respond in some way to each
question asked
Assessment for Learning
Wait Time
Do I provide enough time for students to answer?
How long is five seconds?
From now…
…to now
Impact of Wait Time on Student
Learning
increased wait time
more time to think
more varied answers
longer answers
better quality answers
more students answering
more questions
discussion
Impact of Wait Time on Student
Learning
increased wait time
more confidence
failure to respond decreases
students challenge/improve answers of other
students
more alternative explanations offered
More benefits of “Wait time”
• Calming impact
• Great for the struggling learner
• Avoids same student answering
How do I achieve Wait Time?
Increasing ‘wait time’ can be achieved by:
• Indicating the thinking time and asking for no
hands up until that time is up
• Allowing pair work for a given period of time
before taking responses
• Asking students to jot their thoughts on paper for
a given time before taking responses
• Simply leaving more time for processing to take
place
How do I achieve Wait Time?
• Encourage speculation – Delay answers before you
hop in e.g.
• What more do you think you would need to know to
answer an exam question on this?
• Discuss this in pairs before we go any further
• What might be the answer to this?
• ( a correct answer closes the discussion – a half right
answer can prompt more thought and curiosity
about the topic.)
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Naylor & Keogh, 2000
What is happening in this picture?
What do these responses indicate about the question asked?
Misconceptions
• Questioning identifies and
challenges misconceptions
Naylor & Keogh,2000
How might you prompt better
answers?
• elicit a high percentage of correct responses from
students and assist with incorrect responses
• probe students' responses to have them clarify ideas,
support a point of view, or extend their thinking
• acknowledge correct responses from students and
use praise specifically and discriminately
How might you prompt better
answers?
Open questions
•More than one possible answer
• Don’t have a pre-set answer in your mind!
•Follow up with ‘explain, tell me more’
How might you prompt better
answers?
No hands up!
Make pair work a constant feature of the classroom
Teacher may then ask students to give an interesting
answer or idea from their discussion
Benefits to Students
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They know what to expect (Learning Outcomes)
They know how to reach potential (Success Criteria)
They know they all make mistakes (Peer Assessment)
They know the same people won’t always be
questioned (Wait Time/No Hands)
• They know I don’t always do the same thing – they
could be talking, moving, travelling, drawing or
working in a group (Variety of AfL Strategies)
Comprehension - Jabberwocky (L Carroll)
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe”
1. What were the slithy toves doing in the wabe?
2. How would you describe the state of the borogoves?
3. What can you say about the mome raths?
What kinds of questions do we ask?
• In the average class:
85% are ‘lower order’ questions
15% are ‘higher order’ questions.
Lower Order – Closed Questions
what? who? when? how many?
one word type answers
useful to check who learned facts
Questions for Remembering
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What happened after...?
How many...?
What is...?
Who was it that...?
Can you name ...?
Find the definition of…
Describe what happened after…
Who spoke to...?
Which is true or false...?
Higher Order- Open Questions
Can you be sure that? What would happen if? How would
you explain? What does that tell you? what is wrong with
saying?
Invite longer & more varied answer
essential to promote thinking skills
©
Stems for richer questions
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How can we be sure that ...?
What is the same and what is different about …?
Is it ever/always true/false that …?
Why do ____, ____ and ____ all give the same
answer?
How do you ….?
How would you explain …?
What does that tell us about …?
What is wrong with …?
Why is _____ true?
Levels of Questions
These levels, in ascending order of sophistication, are:
(1) knowledge
(2) comprehension
(3) application
(4) analysis
(5) synthesis
(6) evaluation.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
6. Evaluate
5. Synthesise
4.Analyse
3. Apply
2. Understand, explain
1. Knowledge - recall
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1.Knowledge: taking in information
and recalling it
Prompts
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What happened after……?
How many…………?
Who was it that……?
Who spoke to…….?
Find the meaning of…
Which is true……?
2.Comprehension: giving meaning to
information at a basic level
Prompts
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Can you write in your own words….?
What do you think….?
What is the main idea of…..?
Can you distinguish between…..?
Can you provide an example of what you mean by…….?
3. Application: can use a learned skill
in a new situation
Prompts
• Do you know an instance where….?
• Can you apply this information to an experience of
your own…?
• What facts would change if….?
• Would this information be useful if you had to….?
• Could this have happened in….?
4. Analysis: break down information
into parts and relate parts to whole
Prompts
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How is this similar to….?
Which event could not have happened if…?
Why did……………. occur?
What are some of the problems of….?
What was the turning point in the story..?
5. Synthesis: combine existing
elements to create something new
Prompts
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Can you design a…to…..?
What is a possible solution to…?
What would happen if……?
Can you think of some new and unusual uses for…..?
How would you devise a way to….?
Can you develop a proposal that would…?
6. Evaluation: make an objective
judgement about the value of…
Prompts
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Is there a better solution to…?
Judge the value of….?
Defend your position about…
How would you feel if…..?
What changes would you recommend and why..?
What do you think about….?
Why do you think that?
New Junior Cycle - Key Skills
Managing
information and
thinking
Being Creative
Staying well
Working with
others
Managing myself
Communicating
Common pitfalls in questioning
•Asking too many questions at once
•Asking difficult questions without building up to them
•Asking superficial questions
•Asking a question then answering it yourself
•Asking bogus ‘guess what’s in my head’ questions
•Focusing on a small number of pupils and not involving the whole class
•Dealing ineffectively with wrong answers or misconceptions
•Not treating pupils’ answers seriously
Planning questions
In order to use questioning to improve learning, you need
to:
• formulate different kinds of question.
• write down the main questions that you will use.
• start with simple questions and progress to more
challenging questions
Post Primary:
Take a topic in your subject
with your department colleagues
Formulate a set of questions • as an introduction to the topic
• to ask in the course of the learning
• to revise the topic
Primary:
Choose a strand unit from an area of
the curriculum
Formulate a set of questions for a lesson
• as an introduction to the topic
• to ask during the lesson
• to revise the topic