Importance of questioning

Questioning is a critical skill for teachers because it is:

• the most common form of interaction between teacher and pupil;
• an element of virtually every type and model of lesson;
• a key method of providing appropriate challenge for all pupils;
• an important influence on the extent of progress made;
• the most immediate and accessible way for a teacher to assess learning.

Questioning can form a key part of introductory sessions, of whole-group teaching sessions and of recapitulation/ plenary sessions.

Purposes of questioning

• To interest, engage and challenge pupils

especially in introductory sessions

• To check on prior knowledge
• To stimulate recall and use of existing knowledge and experience in order to create new understanding and meaning

especially in whole-group sessions

• To focus thinking on key concepts and issues
• To lead pupils through a planned sequence which progressively establishes key understandings
• To extend pupils’ thinking from the concrete and factual to the analytical and evaluative
• To promote reasoning, problem solving, evaluation and the formulation of hypotheses

especially in 'plenary' sessions

• To promote pupils’ thinking about the way they have learned

• Closed questions check pupils’ knowledge and understanding.
• Open questions have more than one possible answer. A well-designed set of questions leads pupils from unsorted knowledge to organised understanding.

Questioning models how learning evolves.

• Effective questioning provides opportunities for pupils to ask their own questions,
seek their own answers and provide feedback to each other.
• Effective questioning makes space for pupils to listen to each other’s questions and answers as well as to the teacher’s.
• Effective questioning requires an atmosphere where pupils feel secure enough to take risks or to be tentative.

Pitfalls and Effective Questions

• This is an area characterised by a good deal of ‘instinctive’ practice. We must not be afraid to question or analyse our instincts.

Risks of questioning

• Sometimes, questioning is used in situations where explanation would be a more
appropriate teaching strategy.
• It is easy to fall into the trap of asking bogus questions – ‘Guess my answer’.
• A period of interrogation takes place until the ‘right’ answer is reached.
• Teachers retain control over the process so that pupils do not have opportunities to initiate questions or provide feedback.
• Sometimes, oral comprehension exercises predominate.
• There can be too many closed questions and one-word answers.
• Teachers can be diverted by the pursuit of red herrings.
• There can be problems of fielding incorrect, wayward, glib and unexpected answers.

Effective questioning:

• reinforces and revisits the learning objectives;
• includes ‘staging’ questions to draw pupils towards key understanding or to increase the level of challenge in a lesson as it proceeds;
• involves all pupils;
• engages pupils in thinking for themselves;
• promotes justification and reasoning;
• creates an atmosphere of trust where pupils’ opinions and ideas are valued;
• shows connections between previous and new learning;
• encourages pupils to speculate and hypothesise;
• encourages pupils to ask as well as to ‘receive’questions;
• encourages pupils to listen and respond to each other as well as to the teacher.

Golden rules for questioning sessions:

• provide wait time / tolerate thinking time;
• use the ‘no hands up’ rule;
• build up fuller, more sophisticated answers by layering one answer upon
another; use of supplementary questions to require justification and extend thinking;
• don't be afraid to ask a number of pupils the same question, nor to refer one participant’s answer to another participant to generate discussion not dependent upon ’the teacher’.

Questioning and Thinking Skills

Bloom and his team researched thousands of questions that teachers asked, and
categorised them.

• Research has consistently shown that the large majority of questions asked by teachers come from the first two categories, which relate to factual recall and comprehension.
• Few questions come from the other key categories, which relate to higher-order thinking skills.
• Research has shown that pupils’ levels of achievement can be increased by regular practice of higher-order thinking.
• Achievement at levels 5+ against the National Curriculum level descriptors almost invariably requires thinking in Bloom’s higher-order categories of application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

Bloom’s taxonomy

Thinking

• The pace of questioning is unhurried.
• Wait time allows pupils to think through their answers.
• Pupils are required to formulate their own questions.
• A range of open-ended questions is asked.
• ‘Why’ is frequently used as the opening to questions.
• Higher-order questions which require analysis, evaluation and justification are regularly employed.
• Speculative, ‘what if’ questions requiring reasoning are used.
• Pupils are asked to discern which are the ‘big questions’.

Extended/sustained responses

• Explanations of answers are routinely required.
• Questions which engage emotions or require opinions are set.
• Challenging ‘why’ questions are posed.
• Pupils’ answers are valued by the teacher.
• The teacher’s positive eye-contact and body language encourage pupils to continue.

• Questions are posed to conscripts as well as volunteers.
• Variety is built into the questions.
• Pupils are required to generate their own questions.

• Carefully structured ‘think, pair, share’ sessions foster detailed, paired
discussions.
• Pupils are encouraged to ask each other questions.
• Pupils are requested to add to and challenge the answers provided by others.

Tips for effective questioning

1 Planning for questioning

• Use Bloom’s taxonomy to ensure that you are asking questions which demand more than recall of knowledge and a demonstration of understanding.
• Share key questions at the start of a lesson – a different way of sharing learning objectives. ‘These are the questions we will be trying to answer in this lesson.’
• Ensure that these key questions are answered by the lesson. The plenary can then be based on these questions.
• Forewarn pupils about some key questions: ‘Later in this lesson I am going to ask you a question about ….’
• Stop during the lesson to check whether these key questions have been answered. ‘Have we answered this? Discuss with your partner. What else do you need to know?’
• Ensure that there is a balance between asking and telling.

2 Asking open questions

• Make sure the question has more than one possible answer.
• Don’t have a single ‘right’ answer in your head that pupils have to get to!
• Follow up answers with words and phrases like ‘Explain’, ‘Why?’, ‘What makes you think that?’ and ‘Tell me more’, to provide greater challenge, encourage speaking at greater length and get pupils thinking around the question in greater depth.
• As part of the development of their enquiry skills, encourage pupils to ask their own questions.
• Use techniques such as ‘What do you already know about …? What do you want to know? What questions will help you to find out? How will you find out?’

3 Using questioning to develop collaborative work

• Begin a lesson by giving pairs of pupils a question to answer from the last lesson.
• Ask pairs to discuss a question for a minute before they answer it.
• Make questions a normal part of the lesson. ‘Earlier this lesson I asked you two questions. Turn to your partner and see if you’re ready to answer them yet.’
• Get one group or pair to set questions for another group or pair to answer.

4 Treat questions seriously

• Give pupils time to answer: count a few seconds in your head to allow pupils to form a response.
• Allow pupils time to research answers to more complex questions, either individually or collaboratively.
• Provide structures to enable pupils to find answers and to form their own questions. Sorting and matching exercises are useful for this.
• Encourage pupils to seek answers to their own questions.
• Treat answers with respect..

the full resources provided by the DfES for Training in Questioning
are available here as a pdf download.