The most basic way
teachers have to stimulate interactive thinking and learning in the classroom
is through the use of questions. (Rice & Taylor, 2000)
As a classroom teacher, I often reminded myself that my lessons should be effective, efficient, and
relevant. By incorporating focused questioning techniques, teachers can help to
ensure effectiveness, efficiency, and relevancy. At AAK, I have enjoyed
observing various questioning strategies
employed by our skillful teaching staff. Too often, however, questioning
becomes an overlooked component of the
lesson.
Obviously, through questioning, we check for individual and whole-group understanding (Rice &
Taylor, 2000). Questioning individual
students is most effective; questioning the whole group is most efficient. At times, it is appropriate to opt for
efficiency. When so doing, you might consider using signal responses
(teaching students to “show”
the answer by a predetermined signal). Questioning individual students is more
common and therefore requires greater teacher attention. In questioning, all
students should believe that they are as likely to be called on as any
other student. In questioning individual
students, I find it more effective to utilize an “ask-pause-call”
method as opposed to a “call-ask-wait” technique. In the first case,
the teacher phrases a question, giving all students time to formulate a potential response. Then, she calls on a
random student to provide an answer.
Example: “I’m going to ask you a question,
and I want everyone to think of an answer. From what you read in our text, what were some causes of the Civil
War?”
When calling on an individual for a
response, allow ample wait time. Research
suggests we should wait 3–5 seconds after asking the question before calling on
any individual student (Rice & Taylor, 2000). We should then allow
at least 5 seconds for a response and another
3–5 seconds after obtaining a response before reacting. If, after waiting, the
student initially does not provide an answer, you might entice a response by
offering a clue and restating the question. If, after this, the student
still had no answer, I would often reply, “That’s okay,
Suzanne, but pay attention, because I’m coming back to you.” Then, I
might call on another student to provide the correct answer. Once I received
the correct answer, I would return to the original student, getting her to
verbalize the correct answer.
On the other hand,
by employing a “call-ask-wait” technique (e.g., “Suzanne, what is a noun?”), the resulting effect is that the
anxiety level is raised
for one student while everyone else is off the hook and not accountable for responding or even attending (Rice & Taylor,
2000). As a teacher, I often found myself reluctant to call on those struggling
students who I feared would not be able to respond correctly. By
employing an ask-pause-call method of questioning, allowing ample wait time, providing additional clues, and—ultimately—coming back to students who don’t initially know the correct answer, I felt that I was able to engage
all learners more effectively.
I am pleased,
therefore, to note that teachers at AAK are skilled in questioning techniques and avoid
capricious patterns of checking for individual
and whole-group understanding. Josef Albers stated with perceptiveness, “Good
teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.”
Thanks for taking the time to reflect on your daily questioning techniques. More importantly, thanks for Teaching
with Passion each day!
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