Effective questions

Effective questions are the right questions for the kind of learning students are to experience. When classroom conversation is dull and lacks energy, it is often because the teacher is trying to move conversation forward with questions that generally provoke simple, short responses that don't require much thought. The challenge for teachers is to ask questions that prompt engagement, thought, and (ultimately) learning.

Asking the right question at the right time improves student thinking, increases engagement, and fosters learning.

• Open learning usually requires open-ended, opinion, and often "big idea" questions.

• Closed learning usually requires closed, right or wrong, knowledge, and skill questions.

TYPE OF QUESTIONS:

• Right or wrong questions have correct and incorrect answers, and they are used to determine whether or not students understand something that has been taught or learned.

• Opinion questions do not have right or wrong answers and are usually used as catalysts for conversation.

KIND OF QUESTIONS:

• Open-ended questions have an unlimited (or open) number of responses.

• Closed questions have a finite number of responses. When closed questions are effective, it is usually when they are used to confirm and check student understanding.

Note: Neither type of question is necessarily good or bad, and open questions are not superior to closed questions in all circumstances. However, when classroom conversation is dull and lacks energy, it is often because the teacher is trying to move conversation forward wth closed questions when open questions would be more likely to provoke real thinking.

LEVEL OF QUESTIONS

• Knowledge (know) questions prompt students to demonstrate that they can remember information they have learned. These are frequently closed questions.

• Skill (understand) questions prompt students to apply their knowledge to new situations or settings. Simply put, skill questions prompt people to explain how to do something, and they are often open or closed.

• Big idea (do) questions explore the themes, concepts, overarching ideas, and content structures that recur throughout a course. Big idea questions prompt students to demonstrate that they comprehend the implications of the information they have learned. These are frequently open-ended questions.

1. Ask questions of all students.

2. Develop expectations for students.

3. So that all students answer questions, use the “Repeat, Rephrase, Reduce, Reach Out” technique.

4. Celebrate mistakes.

5. Avoid giving away the answers to right or wrong questions.

6. Provide sufficient wait time.