Polish Your Questioning Techniques

There are many different kinds of questions and the can produce varying responses in children. The purpose of teachers' questions should be to promote children's activity and reasoning. (Harlen, 1985)

• Questions that encourage activity focus students to take a closer look with a new exercise or experiment. Such questions begin with:
  • Have you seen...? Do you notice...?
  • How many...? How long...? How often...?
  • Is it longer, stronger, heavier, more, than...? In how many ways are your seeds alike? How do they differ?
  • What happens if ...?
  • Can you find a way to...?

   

• Questions that promote reasoning often start with how or why and can be asked by either teacher or the class. Teachers' questions include the phrase "why do you think" and be timed so that teachers have the necessary experience to form a view which is genuinely their own. Some examples of good reasoning questions are:
  • What do you mean by..?
  • How does...relate to...?
  • How do you think your idea relates to the issue?
  • All of your reasoning depends on the idea that...Why have you based your reasoning on...rather than...?
  • Why do you think this is so?
  • What is your evidence?
  • What would change your mind?

  Often reasoning questions can be used to begin either of the following classroom discussion activities:

   

Think-Pair-Share-Square

Pick a pivotal passage from a text to read outloud. Write a thought-provoking question about the passage on the overhead to focus students. Have the students write their ideas about the question for two minutes. Have each student turns to a thinking partner of their choice (someone close so no walking is involved). and discuss their thoughts for two minutes. After two minutes, instruct each pair of students to join another pair for a four-way exchange. Have the four students discuss the question for two more minutes, then poses the question again for a whole-class discussion.

Shared Inquiry

Pick a text selection for students to read independently for homework or outloud. Make sure the text selection has numbered pages. Have the students sit in a circle, review theme of the text, and pose an opening question to the students. A good opening question:

• Arises from genuine curiosity on the part of the leader.
• Has no single or "right" answer.
• Is framed to generate discussion leading to greater understanding of the ideas in the text.
• Can best be answered by reference to the text.

Have students discuss the question referring the text by page number in order to clarify their position. Students should: take turns, not raise hands, speak and listen carefully, and talk to each other. The teacher should: stay with the text and follow every answer with another question, building on the answer just given, provide adequate wait time, and insist that all answers be clear and adequately explained. Students may "pass" if asked to contribute. Students who have not read the text may not participate in the discussion, but can participate after by critiquing the discussion.

This type of inquiry is often used in "Junior Great Books" discussion and is also gaining acceptance by the Socratic Seminar Society .

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