Five Principles for Effective Questioning

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Five Principles for Effective Questioning

• The purpose of classroom questioning is to
  promote learning and develop learning skills.
  Asking challenging questions steer students to
  become independent thinkers and develop their
  own perspectives.
• A thinking classrooms teacher plans their
  questioning in such a way that it helps to
  promote differentiation, independence of
  thoughts, opportunities to think collectively,
  share views and ideas with fellow students
  resulting in exploring the differences in
  thinking.
• Types of questions that develop thinking and
  reasoning
• Some questions are effective in developing
  students in thinking and reasoning in comparison
  to others. The teachers use their experience to
  find examples of types of questions that may
  help in stimulating student thinking.
• Types of questions can further be classified as
  Closed and open questions.
• Closed Questions The questions which require a
  simple response, such as Yes, No, or a short
  answer. Examples include
• How are you today?
• Does 5 plus 8 equals to 13?
• What is the periodic symbol of Iron?
• Who wrote Romeo and Juliet?

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• These questions are quick and easy to respond to,
  producing less confusion. However, a closed set
  of questions limit the ability of a childs
  opportunity to expand, as they require fewer
  reasoning skills.
• Open Questions
• These questions require a deeper level of
  thinking and a lengthier response. Examples can
  be
• Describe the role of vitamin D in the body.
• How do you interpret the end of the film?
• Explain Photosynthesis.
• What happens when we mix green and blue colors?
• Open questions produce better results as they
  enrich the learning experience by encouraging
  individual thinking.
• Techniques for asking effective questions in
  class
• Introduce a no hand policy
• Teachers in Global Indian International School
  (GIIS) offer the question to the entire class
  and then randomly pick up a student to answer.
  Classteacher passes out the fact to the entire
  class that any student may be called upon to
  answer so that the class begins to think through
  and prepare the answer.
• Plan Ahead
• Plan in advance the type of questions you want to
  ask the class. While creating a class lesson,
  plan which parts of the content you want to ask
  to keep the studies on track and achieve desired
  learning outcomes.
• Use a mix of questions
• Open and closed questions are both beneficial for
  different purposes. Therefore, a teacher should
  vary the items and include questions depending on
  the reason for asking.
• Give students time to think
• Give some more time to the students to think
  individually before discussing so that they all
  have something to share.
• Dont dismiss answers

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Conclusion Effective questioning is a good
methodology for preparing students to think
critically and independently. Once applied
properly in a classroom, this is sure to generate
productive results and be beneficial for their
future careers.