Asking the Right Questions

In the classroom, one important theme is interaction. Interaction is necessary for learning.  One way teachers interact with with their students is through asking questions.  Questions not only relay to the teacher what the students are learning or understanding, but also expand the children's minds.  Dr. Strange provided his students with many sources to learn how to ask the right questions.  After reading the articles and watching a couple of videos, there were five main tips for asking questions.

These tips are:

1. After asking a question, wait before calling upon a student

2. Randomly chose students to answers

3. Prepare and revise the questions that are asked

4. Ask open ended questions

5. Create an accepting atmosphere in the classroom

All of these tips are essential for asking the right questions; however, I payed special attention to preparing and revising questions and asking open ended questions.  First, preparing and revising questions is vital to improving the learning experience.  Maryellen Weimer wrote Three Ways to Ask Better Questions in the Classroom; in this article she describes how she has improved her questions in the classroom.  She tells the reader that when she first started teaching she did not realize the importance of preparing the questions she would ask.  Some may think that the perfect questions will just come to them in the moment.  This is a poor way to go about asking questions.  Weimer explains to her readers that if the teacher just asks questions off the top of his head it could come out as jumbled thoughts.  Poor question planning will only confuse the students rather than helping them understand the material being presented.  This hinders the learning experience.  In addition to preparing questions, a teacher must revise the questions he is asking.  Reflection and revision will clear up any ambiguity in the question, as well as weed out the crummy questions that the teacher had prepared.  Asking questions is like writing a good essay.  A well written essay is not just thrown together in the moment it is due.  It begins with an outline (this is the preparation stage), then body paragraphs are formed, then the essay is revised, draft after draft (the revision process).  My sociology professor Dr. Freed taught me the importance of writing in drafts.  One day in class he brought in a piece of writing he had been working on.  It was covered in red ink corrections and this was draft number 25! Nothing is ever perfect; sometimes, it takes stepping away and coming back to your writing many, many times before it says what the author wants it to say.  Lastly, while reflecting upon questions that have been asked, the teacher may fancy a question that a student has asked.  The teacher may then use the question as an example in the next class.

Secondly, asking open ended, or divergent, questions is a great way to open the student's minds.  Many times teachers get into the habit of asking only convergent questions.  Convergent questions are those in which there is a specific answer (yes, no, names, dates, etc.).  For example, who created the Anglican Church?  This something that is important to know, but it does not require the student to delve deeper into the subject matter.  Instead, the teacher may ask "Do you agree with the reasons as to why King Henry VIII started the Anglican Church?"  This is a divergent question.  Divergent questions require more thinking on the student's part.  There is no concrete correct answer, more than a yes or no question.  A video by Thoughtful Classroom demonstrates that open ended questions help the children in four areas: mastery, understanding, self expression, and interpersonal thinking.  The video gives tips on how to ask divergent questions more effectively through several techniques.  Some of these techniques are Think, Pair, Share, using a learning log, drawing pictures, and again waiting after asking questions and the random calling upon a student.  Randomly calling on children is an important part of asking questions because it gives every student a chance to respond to the teacher and interaction is an essential part to the learning experience.