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TIPS
for Teachers-
Asking
Good Questions
- Good Questioning Skills
- Questioning Strategies That Promote Higher Level Thinking
- Asking Probing Questions
- Divergent Questions
- Additional Resource Information
Good
questioning skills are an important part of project-based learning and
promote student inquiry and conjecture with open-ended questions.
Teachers of project-based learning have to encourage student question-asking behavior and peer questioning to improve student engagement and to probe for misunderstandings in their inquiry process.
Questions that ask students to elaborate, justify, and extend their ideas helps with metacognitive reasoning.
Questions allow us to make sense of the world. They
are the most powerful tools we have for making decisions and solving problems,
for inventing, changing and improving our lives as well as the lives of
others.
Questioning is central to learning and growing (McKenzie,
1999).
Jacobson et al. (1993) discuss the critical role of questioning in effective teaching. In inquiry, skillful questioning allows the teacher to foster high-level discussions, either with the whole class, in small groups, or with individual students.
Questioning
Strategies That Provoking High-Level Thinking
- Require students to manipulate prior information
by asking questions such as:
- "Why do you suppose...?"
- "What can you conclude from the evidence?"
- Ask students to state an idea or definition in their own words.
- Ask questions that require the solution to a problem.
- Involve students in observing and describing an
event or object by asking questions such as:
- "What do you notice here?"
- "Tell me about this"
- "What do you see?"
- Ask students to compare two or more objects, statements, illustrations, or demonstrations, and identify similarities or differences between them. While identifying similarities, students will begin to establish patterns that can lead to understanding of a concept or generalization (Jacobson et al.,1993) .
Different types of questions accomplish different tasks and help us to build up our answers in different ways.
If you ask many tantalizing and divergent questions in your classroom, your students are likely to model after your behavior.
Notice that these kinds of questions lead students to develop a plan based on a clarification of their goals and what they know about available resources.
We must show our students the features of each type of question so they know which combination to employ with the essential question at hand.
We don't want them reaching into their toolkit blindly, grasping the first question which comes to mind. (McKenzie, 1996).
Asking
Probing Questions
Students need opportunities to process information by justifying or explaining their responses--dealing with the why,how, and the based-upon what aspects of a concept.
Probing promotes reflective and critical thinking. Because it requires teachers to think quickly in the moment, it can also be one of the most difficult questioning techniques (Jacobson et al.,1993).
Divergent
Questions
Pursuing students divergent questions and comments is one of the central elements of inquiry teaching. It not only engages students in classroom discussions, it allows them to think independently, creatively, and more critically.
It teaches them to take ownership of their own learning while also feeling a shared responsibility for the learning of the entire class.
A teacher can ask divergent questions to elicit many
different answers.
- Imagine...
- Suppose...
- Predict...
- If..., then...
- How might...
- Can you create...
- What are some of the possible consequences...
- What if...
Divergent questions allow a number of students to respond to the same question, encouraging student participation.
Redirecting questions will also help to increase the number of students participating in a discussion, but teachers need to make a strong effort to call on all students equally (Jacobson et al.,1993).
Additional
Resource Information
- A Questioning Toolkit: Information about different kinds of questioning.
- Asking Good Classroom Questions: Provides samples of good questions: open-ended questions, divergent questions, thought provoking questions, and clear questions.
- Questioning Techniques for Gifted Students: A Review of good questioning strategies and examples of categories of good questions.
- Tactics That Encourage Active Learning: Strategies for getting students to use critical thinking.
- Teaching Tips: Questions! Questions!: Types of questions provided by the Center for Teaching Excellence.
- Types of Teacher Questions: Ideas to help you analyze your own questioning skills.
Becoming
a Coach
|Asking
Good Questions
| Using
Journals in Project-Based Lessons
Assessing
Project-Based Learning|
Making & Mnaging Long Range Projects |
Using
Interactive Tools
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