The Ten Commandments of Questioning in the classroomIt is estimated that teachers can ask up to 500 questions a day — but how many are actually any good? Measure up against these ten commandments of questioning.

1. Thou shalt track thy habitsFind out what your habits are by recording a lesson you teach, or asking a colleague to tally these habits. Do you favour one side of the room to the other (hint: we tend to)? Do you ask a mix of genders? Do you only select those students who make eye contact? All of this tacit teaching can be incredibly revealing.

2. Thou Shalt Stop Answering Thy Own QuestionsAround 65% of questions asked by teachers are answered…by the teachers themselves! Develop an active awareness of this habit by informing students you will suffer a ‘fine’ for every question you answer yourself. I find press-ups work well.

3. Thou Shalt Use A ‘No Hands Up’ Approach OccasionallyWe all know those cloudholders whose hands are forever in the air, but what about those students who don’t have the confidence to put their hands up, yet want to contribute. Forget lolly sticks and instead seek these students out, smile and ask them for an answer.

4. Thou Shall not Accept “I Don’t Know” As A ResponseThis is one problem which needs careful addressing — letting a student off the hook by moving on lets them believe that you accept their approach. Instead, ask them to repeat the question, and then talk them through how they might find an answer.

5. Thou Shalt Indulge in Wait TimeWe can as teachers start panicking if responses don’t come thick and fast, but it is recommended to wait between 3

seconds (for closed questions) and 10 seconds (for open questions) before a response. Remember, if it’s a good question, it should make them think, so give them some thinking time!

6. Though Shalt Employ Carrots and SticksBuild in rewards and motivation for answering questions in the classroom, and indicate how participation in the lesson leads to better outcomes. Set more resistant participants the challenge of answering at least one question per session.

7. Thou Shalt Measure The Attention SpanHere are two quick rules of thumb: less than 75% eye contact from the class; mix things up. Another rule: the attention span of you class is roughly their age in minutes. If you are questioning for longer than this, what are you hoping to achieve?

8. Thou Shalt Avoid AnchorsWe’ve all had a lesson where one student says a totally unreasonable answer, and every answer after this seems attached to it! Backtrack as soon as you can and dissect why this answer is wrong, otherwise you have a great danger of losing them all.

9. Thou Shalt Make Your Questions That SimpleThis doesn’t mean challenging, this means simple to understand. The test shouldn’t be understanding the question, but trying to find the

right answer. It is far better to let them encode an answer than decode your question.

10. Thou Shall Not Ask The Same Question RepeatedlyIf you’ve asked it more than three times, has it really gone

in, been heard or even understood? Rephrase your question, or go back to the stage before to ensure all the class understand what it is you are

asking.

This is an condensed extract from the book, “Hands Up: Questions to ignite thinking in the classroom,”

written by Stephen Lockyer and available from Amazon.