Assessment for Learning (AfL)

Effective Questioning

Some Starter Questions

• Do you ask pupils to come up with their own ideas and to think aloud?

• Do you encourage your pupils to explain their reasons for their answers?

• Do they get the opportunity to ask their own questions?• Is it okay to give a ‘wrong’ answer in your classroom?• Is everybody’s opinion valued by everyone?

Climate for Learning

• Risk-taking culture• Community of enquiry• Commitment to learning for all

We can establish a positive climate in our classrooms by:

Promoting a risk-taking cultureIn order for pupils to take risks, they need to know that all

contributions are encouraged and valued and that making errors is part of the learning experience.

• One approach is to create agreed ‘ground rules’ and to flag these up on a regular basis e.g. think time, valuing all contributions

• Problem-solving activities can encourage pupils to hypothesise and think aloud. It illustrates the trial and error of the learning process and can help them become more comfortable with making errors in order to reach conclusions

Creating a community of enquiry and of independent thinking and learning will help foster a positive climate.

Supportive relationships are extremely important. You can foster relationships in the class by setting up collaborative ways of working and using flexible groupings

Creating a community of enquiry

Demonstrating a commitment to learning for all

We need to reinforce a shared belief that all children have the capacity to learn by emphasising progression in learning rather than performance.

This can help promote self-belief and personal satisfaction on completion of tasks, because pupils can feel secure in comingup with their own ideas, thinking out loud and explaining their reasoning.

Activity

Answering the Big Questions

Consider a lesson you delivered.

What was the purpose of your questions during that lesson?

How did you respond to the answers the pupils gave?

Why Do We Ask Questions?

• To manage and organise pupils’ behaviour

• To find out what pupils know

• To stimulate interest in a new topic

• To focus on an issue or topic

• To structure a task for maximum learning

• To identify, diagnose difficulties or blocks to learning

• To stimulate pupils to ask questions

• To give pupils opportunity to assimilate, reflect and learn through discussion

What Is Effective Questioning?

Framing, delivering, timing, soliciting and responding to questions to:

• identify where pupils are currently in their learning;• expand and deepen the learning;• inform planning for future learning.

Classroom Strategies: Ask Better Questions

• Ask fewer questions• Ask more ‘open’ questions• Sequence questions• Prepare key questions

Classroom Strategies: Ask Questions Better

Involve the whole class To promote a risk-taking culture, ensure that pupils do not feel threatened. You can engage the whole class by simply walking round the room while asking/directing questions. This can increase pupil involvement and may also help you observe pupil participation and engagement.

Think, pair, share Pupils are sometimes intimidated by having to speak up in a whole-class situation. Here, pupils think about their answer, discuss it with a partner and then with a group. This can take the focus off the individual, improve self-esteem and give shy pupils a voice.

Provide think time Providing time to think is critical to effective questioning. Research shows that teachers typically allow less than 1 second of wait time between posing the question and asking for the answer (sometimes by providing the answer themselves). By increasing that wait time to 3-5 seconds, you can make a significant difference to your question’s effectiveness. Doing so:

– gives pupils vital time to order their thoughts;– ensures more pupils are likely to offer an answer; – results in fewer ‘I don’t know’s;– produces more thoughtful, creative and extended answers; and– benefits all children, no matter what their ability.

Try no hands up By asking for ‘no hands up’, you can encourage all pupils to stay engaged with the question for longer.

Classroom Strategies: Deal With Answers Productively

Use wrong answer to develop understandingTurn them into a springboard for improved understanding. The trick is to point

out the error in such a way that you don’t actually say ‘No that’s wrong’ and at the same time steer the pupil towards a better response.

Prompt pupilsPrompt pupils to rethink and review what has already been discussed and/or

give cues to guide them in the right direction. For example, ‘Why do you think that…?’ or ‘Could you explain…’ Remember, prompts do not always have to be verbal. A nod, smile or encouraging hand gesture can also be used to prompt pupils’.

Listen and respond positivelyThis can encourage learners to take risks and volunteer answers rather than

being silent because they are afraid to give the ‘wrong answer’.

Classroom Strategies: Generate Pupils’ Questions

• Model questioning for pupils • Provide opportunities for pupils to demonstrate

their skills• Plan time for pupils’ questions and for dealing

with them effectively

Key Messages

• Establishing the right climate is crucial.• The classroom should be seen as a community of

enquiry.• The role of questioner does not lie solely with the

teacher.• Effective questioning performs three key functions:

- to identify the present level of understanding;- to extend and deepen learning; and- to inform future planning.

Key Messages cont.

Benefits of effective questioning include:

- improving the classroom ethos/environment;- instilling the skills needed for independent learning; and- supporting the objectives of Health & Wellbeing at all levels in Curriculum for Excellence.

Planning for Questioning - Adapted from E C Wragg

Identify key questions in relation to the learning intentions for the lesson.

Decide on the level, order and timing of questions.

Extend the questioning - thinking of subsidiary questions to ask.

Analyse anticipated answers and responses you might give.