Effective Questioning

• 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 learningAssessment for learning Assessment as learning

Key Messages

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?

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

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 • 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 thinkmore varied answers

longer answersbetter quality answers

more students answeringmore questions

discussion

Impact of Wait Time on Student Learning

increased wait time

more confidencefailure 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

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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.)

What is happening in this picture?What do these responses indicate about the question asked?

Naylor & Keogh, 2000

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 StudentsBenefits to Students

• 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 tovesDid 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

• 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...?

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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• 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?

These levels, in ascending order of sophistication, are:

(1) knowledge (2) comprehension (3) application (4) analysis (5) synthesis (6) evaluation.

Levels of Questions

40404040

Bloom’s Taxonomy

1. Knowledge - recall

2. Understand, explain

3. Apply

4.Analyse

5. Synthesise

6. Evaluate

1.Knowledge: taking in information and recalling it

Prompts• 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• 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• 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• 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• 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

Working with others

Managing myself

CommunicatingStaying well

Being Creative

Managing information and

thinking

•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

Common pitfalls in questioning

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

Planning 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